Elizabeth Williams named Assistant Director for Educator Development Program
Williams started her path in EDP four years ago when she researched the worldwide resources for educator training and published the article titled, “Identification of Training Opportunities in Medical Education for Academic Faculty.” (Medical Teacher 2019; 41(8):912-16) Since then, she participated in the Harvard Macy Program for Medical Educators in Health Professions and was accepted as a 2020-22 EDP Scholar.
As an EDP scholar, she has continued her work on developing resources for medical educators and will launch the new Educator Training Portal and Educator Resource Library in August, 2021. The portal and resource library provide a central site for educators to access world-wide resources geared toward medical educators. The resources are extensive and consist of tools and training programs both in and outside of VUMC and the United States. The portal identifies training programs from around the globe that support advancing educator skills and career development. The portal will also create a one-stop central location for individuals to search and find various training opportunities. The resource library consists of previous EDP training workshops and webinars to use for self-paced learning and development. Williams’ will implement a process to evaluate the development, implementation, and utilization of such resources as an enduring educational material and will support current and future generations of medical educators.
“Dr. Williams will bring a fresh approach to the EDP team and will focus on advancing our research mission to support medical educators in their scholarly works and research. We are excited and happy to have her on our team,” said Charlene M. Dewey, MD, MEd, MACP, Assistant Dean for Educator Development. “I have worked with Elizabeth for the past several years and she is passionate about vaccine education, research, and assisting educators at Vanderbilt.”
Williams is an established pediatrician, researcher, and educator with an expertise in vaccine education. She graduated from the Medical College of Georgia, completed residency training at the University of Virginia, and completed fellowship training in Vaccine Safety and Vaccinology at Vanderbilt. She also completed her MPH training at Vanderbilt in 2013. She serves as a Section Member and member on the Education Subcommittee for the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Infectious Diseases. She is also a member of the General Pediatrics Education Review Team and is the Co-chair of the Vanderbilt-Cumberland Pediatric Foundation Partnered Research Committee. In her short career, Williams has already accumulated more than 25 published papers, more than 20 scholarly works, and 25 invited national speakerships.
Williams takes the reins from Julie A. Damp, MD, who served as the Assistant Director of the EDP from 2016 to 2021. Damp stepped down to focus on her role as the Residency Program Director for Cardiology. Williams is the fourth Assistant Director to hold this position after Leora Horn, the late Geoffrey Fleming, and Damp.