Announcement: Dr. Mithu Sen re-appointed Assistant Dean, Faculty Equity and Wellness
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Mithu Sen has been re-appointed as Assistant Dean, Faculty Equity and Wellness, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University effective March 1, 2017 to February 28, 2020.
Dr Sen graduated from Queen’s University with a BSc First Class Honors in 1991. She completed medical school at the University of Calgary in 1995, and continued in Calgary to complete her Internal Medicine Residency. She completed her fellowships in Respirology, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.
In 2003, Dr. Sen joined the Department of Medicine, Divisions of Respirology and Critical Care Medicine, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry as an Assistant Professor. She has been involved in undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional development since 2004.
She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. Her extensive administrative experience also includes: Director of Undergraduate Education, Postgraduate Education, Program Director in Critical Medicine (Adult), and the founding Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Review Course. She has been Assistant Dean, Faculty Equity and Wellness since 2014. In this role, she has been the Chair of the Mentorship Oversight Committee. She established and chairs the Faculty Affairs Advisory Committee and the Faculty Wellness Committee. Her work led the creation of an international award winning (AAMC) Faculty Wellness Program at our school.
Dr. Sen serves on The Associated Medical Service (AMS) Board of Directors, which oversees many aspects of education nationally including the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine and the AMS Phoenix Project. She is an experienced Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) appointed external surveyor for postgraduate training programs nationally. She is recognized nationally for her expertise in accreditation of academic institutions and training programs. She was nominated and serves on the Fellowship Affairs Committee by the RCPSC. Her experience in health care and hospital systems, having been on the Board of Directors at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), Professional Staff Organization (PSO) President, and Medical Advisory Committee member, as well as Chair of LHSC Resuscitation Committee for more than 10 years, gives her experience significant breadth.
She has been instrumental in developing health policy locally and nationally since 2008. Her experience as an educator and her influence is sought after in national projects and policies, including those setting precedence in the Canadian health care system, including the Fatigue, Risk, Excellence: A PanCanadian Consensus on Resident Duty Hours, published in 2013, where she was recruited to serve on the Medical Education Expert Working Group and contributing author.
Dr. Sen has been involved with competency based medical education (CBME) since 2011. She was recruited to The CanMEDS 2015 Project, the first part of CBME, to write milestones and elements in The Scholar, Life Long Learner Expert Working Group (EWG) as a core member and a contributing author. This is now being applied in every specialty and subspecialty program to translate this into their CBME program. She has been continuing this work by writing Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA’s) at RCSPC. She was trained in the first RCPSC ASPIRE (Advancing Patient Safety in Residency Education) and earned certification as a trainer for this CanMEDS curriculum. She was elected to the Chair of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada Physician Health and Wellness Group, bringing undergraduate, postgraduate, and faculty affairs, work in this area and leading this initiative nationally. She serves on the national RCPSC Specialty Committee, and is the Director of Education for The Canadian Critical Care Society. She was the Chair of the Ontario Thoracic Society Better Breathing Conference in 2016, at which she is also a curriculum planning committee member. She has also been an instructor for Crucial Conversations (VitalSmarts) for a decade.
Dr. Sen was the recipient of The Cameron Gray Award, Ontario Thoracic Society in 2000, the Junior Teaching Award of Excellence in the Department of Medicine in 2008, and the Dean’s Award of Excellence for Postgraduate Education in 2013.She received the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Best in Class international award in 2016, for her leadership at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and Western University in faculty vitality, resilience, and work life integration. The Group on Faculty Affairs (GFA), AAMC is the international expert group in Faculty Affairs, thus a great honour to have the project win this award. This innovative work was the creation of a faculty wellness program at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry that led to this prestigious recognition of our centre as a lead in this area of faculty affairs.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Sen on her re-appointment.
Dr. Michael J. Strong
Dean, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Distinguished University Professor
Arthur J Hudson Chair in ALS Research
Scientist, Robarts Research Institute
