Faculty Feed brings professional development to faculty, wherever they are

In recognition of International Podcast Day, the UofL Health Sciences Center’s Faculty Feed podcast highlights how on-demand learning is helping shape the future of medicine. 

As the pace of academic medicine continues to evolve, so too must the ways faculty learn, lead and connect. For busy health professions educators that are balancing clinical care, research, teaching and hybrid schedules, professional development cannot always happen in a lecture hall or at a fixed time on the calendar. 

That reality helped inspire Faculty Feed, a podcast from the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center Office of Professional and Educational Development designed to make high-yield faculty development more accessible, flexible and immediately useful. The series was created to serve approximately 1,250 faculty across UofL’s Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Public Health by offering bite-sized, mobile learning that meets educators where they are. 

“Faculty development is central to teaching quality and faculty vitality, but it has to meet the reality of modern academic medicine,” said Staci Saner, assistant dean of continuing and professional education. “Faculty need flexible, practical ways to engage with professional development — whether they are between patient care duties, commuting or looking for a quick spark of inspiration that can be applied in their teaching, mentorship or leadership that week.” 

Inspired by the educational model of Differentiated Instruction, which adapts content, process and environment to meet individual learner needs, Faculty Feed was built as an asynchronous, on-demand modality. In practice, that means faculty can access professional development whenever a few minutes become available. 

That kind of flexibility reflects a broader shift in academic healthcare: preparing the workforce of the future requires learning models that are adaptable, interprofessional and grounded in the realities of modern medicine. 

The podcast’s topics are selected at the intersection of interprofessional collaboration, effective leadership and practical wellness in academic medicine. Episodes translate complex health sciences work into useful insights for educators, clinical leaders and learners, often ending with a practical takeaway listeners can apply in their own teaching, mentorship or leadership that same week. 

Recent conversations have explored team dynamics and mentorship with Ashley Shelton and Mohamed Hegazi, psychological safety and leadership in nursing with Staci Saner and Amanda Jo LeBlanc, collaborative sports medicine with Jen Daily and student-athlete Tague Davis, misconceptions around palliative care with Ashley Iles and mental toughness and employee engagement with Andreas Stamatis and Spencer Cavan. 

Those conversations pull back the curtain on the people and ideas shaping health sciences education. They also help break down silos by making expertise from one area of campus accessible to educators across the institution. 

The response has shown that faculty are listening. Across more than 172 episodes, the podcast has accumulated more than 17,800 listens from over 9,600 distinct listeners. 

For the Faculty Feed team, those numbers reinforce a key lesson: engagement is not a fixed faculty trait, but an institutional design variable. When professional development is designed around the real needs of faculty, more people can participate in meaningful ways. 

As the School of Medicine recognizes International Podcast Day, celebrated each year on Sept. 30, Faculty Feed offers a reminder that the future of medicine will be shaped not only by new discoveries and technologies, but also by how educators share knowledge, strengthen leadership and support one another’s growth. 

Listeners can explore Faculty Feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms. To learn more, contact the HSC Office of Professional and Educational Development at OPED@louisville.edu.