FAQ's About the Academy

Academy Logo

1. What is the Academy Health Sciences Educators?

The Academy is a Augusta University health sciences college-wide organization of distinguished educators which:

  • Promotes educational excellence, innovation, and scholarship
  • Serves as an “Academic Home” for faculty with career interests in health sciences education, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, resources, and information.
  • Works to improve the quality of health professional education through service to the Augusta University in faculty development, mentoring, and educational leadership.

2. What are goals of the Academy of Health Sciences Educators?

The goals of the Academy are:

  • To recognize faculty who have made outstanding contributions to health professional education through excellence in teaching, innovation and scholarship.
  • To establish a forum for faculty with recognized accomplishments in health professional education to facilitate the exchange of ideas, career development and collaboration across departments.
  • To improve the quality of health professional education by fostering faculty development, curricular innovation, creating products that will advance the field, and developing educational leaders for the future.

3. What are the benefits of being an Academy member?

Selection for membership in the Academy of Health Sciences Educators is a major achievement. Some of the benefits include:

  • Recognition: Academy members are recognized as being outstanding educators, innovators and leaders in health professional education across the institution.
  • Promotion: When University faculty apply for promotion, their Academy membership establishes their credibility as being outstanding in teaching.
  • Inspiration and Collaboration: Participation in Academy meetings and activities provides members with opportunities to interact with other faculty with similar interests and to exchange ideas related to education, facilitating collaboration across departments.

4. Are there any obligations to being an Academy member?

Because of their expertise in teaching and educational scholarship, faculty are expected to share their time and talents with their colleagues in a variety of activities to improve the quality of its educational programs and the career satisfaction of its faculty: 

  • Developing and leading faculty development workshops on topics related to health professional education, teaching, and research
  • Participating in educational seminars to promote education issues across campus, such as the monthly health sciences educational journal club (EATS).
  • Serving as mentors for junior faculty or faculty who aspire to be Academy members, helping them develop their education and teaching skills.
  • Serving as educational experts and advocates for educational scholarship on major committees within the Augusta University.
  • Participating in activities that support the Academy's function such as helping in the selection and review of Academy members, leading and supporting Academy programs, and helping with Academy governance.

5. Does it cost anything?

There is no cost to join the Academy, and no dues for membership. The only “cost” is the expectation for service (see #4 above)

6. Is membership permanent, or is it time-limited?

Academy membership continues as long as the member remains part of the active faculty and continues to remain active in Academy activities At the end of each academic year, every Academy member submits a one-page report to the Academy steering committee detailing his/her educational activities and service to the Academy for the previous year. If the member is not maintaining a level of performance consistent with his/her initial application, he/she may be asked to resign his/her membership.