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Pilot in progress · Sioux Falls region

An educators' academy at USD Sanford School of Medicine

Building community, one educator at a time.

The Raszkowski Academy connects, develops, and celebrates the volunteer faculty who teach medicine across South Dakota.

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The problem

A medical school whose faculty are scattered across a state.

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What the Academy does

Four objectives, one connected community.

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An attending physician teaches a medical student at a patient's bedside.

Why it matters

Students learn medicine from the faculty who teach at their training sites — and often return there to practice.

How it works

Built as a continuous-improvement loop.

The Academy runs on the Plan–Do–Study–Act method. Select a stage to see what happens inside it.

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The member journey

From a shared meal to a shared identity.

Experience & curriculum →
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Impact & scale

Designed to be measured, honestly.

Results from the founding cohort are being analyzed. Rather than inflate outcomes, the Academy publishes its design targets and scale now — and replaces them with real data as each cycle completes. That discipline is the point.

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Context figures (≈2,100 faculty · ≈300 students) are institutional scale, to confirm — never presented as Academy outcomes.
See the evidence & assessment plan →

The opportunity

Building community and skills through the Academy will improve faculty engagement and support — and contribute to a stronger educational climate across the health system.

The Model

What an educators' academy is — and why it fits a community-based school.

An educators' academy is a formal member organization of faculty recognized for their contributions to an institution's educational mission — with leadership and dedicated resources, not merely a group of honored teachers.

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The academy movement

1990

First academy — the Society of Teaching Scholars, Medical College of Wisconsin.

71+

Member organizations counted by the Academies Collaborative (2021) — most at traditional academic medical centers.

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A comparatively rare thing: an academy built from a community-based medical school.

Why it matters

Academies grew as a structural response to the educational mission being crowded out by research and clinical demands. Students benefit from strong faculty role models and often return to their training sites to practice; physicians, in turn, gain autonomy, mastery, and purpose from clinical teaching.

Selected literature

The evidence base

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[PLACEHOLDER: confirm final citation formatting / links with the author.]

Experience & Curriculum

The member journey, made concrete.

A welcome dinner and get-to-know-you session, six remote lunch-and-learns chosen by the cohort, then reflection and membership.

Physicians talking and laughing over a candlelit welcome dinner.

It starts here

The welcome dinner comes first — relationships before curriculum.

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Build a sample track

Cohorts choose six sessions from the topic menu.

Select topics to assemble an illustrative track. Real cohorts pick the six that fit their teaching.

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No sessions yet. Choose from the menu to build a track.

Illustrative only — mirrors how real cohorts select their six sessions.

Who it's for

The pilot cohort is 6–8 physicians practicing in the Avera system in Sioux Falls and neighboring communities.

The commitment

Members are asked to attend at least four of the six ~30-minute sessions. [confirm dates/eligibility]

What members gain

Identity as a valued SSOM educator, teaching-skill development, community, and a hand in the Academy's growth.

Membership tiers

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Evidence & Impact

Rigor first: how the Academy measures itself.

The Academy treats its own program as a study — with a defined method, instruments, and success measures, and an honest empty state where data is still pending.

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Assessment approach

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Success measures the program has defined

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Data pending

Results from the pilot cohort are being analyzed.

Outcome data, participant quotes, and engagement figures will appear here once the first cycle is complete — modeling transparent, iterative scholarship rather than a static brochure.

Roadmap · cycle two

Review participant feedback, seat a steering committee, and expand beyond Avera McKennan / Sioux Falls to other Avera sites and regional SSOM campuses. [confirm timing]

Scholarship & dissemination

Planned venues include the AAMC Central Group on Educational Affairs (CGEA), MedEdPortal, and Teaching and Learning in Medicine. [confirm status]

For Health Systems & Funders

Teaching is a low-cost investment in a healthier workforce.

Three arguments leaders care about: physician well-being, accreditation, and philanthropy — each grounded in the source evidence.

A family-medicine physician in a community clinic, with colleagues and patients in the background.

Physicians who feel connected and supported stay — and keep teaching.

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[PLACEHOLDER: confirm which funding/donor details may be shown publicly — do not publish internal budget figures without approval.]

Help build the community that keeps physicians teaching.

Get Involved

Join the community.

Three ways to take part — as a member, an advocate for a colleague, or a partner.

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Who's behind this

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With gratitude to Dr. Tim Ridgway. [PLACEHOLDER: approved bios + headshots; do not invent bio detail.]