About the IAMSE Mentoring Certificate Program (IM-REACH)

  • I - IAMSE
  • M - Mentoring
  • R - Reflect
  • E - Empower
  • A - Advocate
  • C - Commitment
  • H - Highlight

Mentoring students, postdocs, and faculty and guiding their work is crucial for their success in diverse career paths that encompass leadership, clinical and educational roles. The IAMSE Mentoring Certificate program, or IM-REACH, is a productive way to prepare for a role as mentors and support mentees in their career paths and academic pursuits. Mentorship is a skill for both the mentor and mentee, a true dynamic relationship that is a journey in pursuit of career engagement and success.

IM-REACH provides an opportunity to enhance skills, gain experience, and engage in reflection and growth as a mentor and ultimately influence your relationship with your mentee. The goal of this program is to develop well-rounded, diverse health professional education mentors through targeted professional development in key aspects of mentorship, which includes both knowledge and skills. The program will provide evidence of that mentorship leads to specialized achievement that enhances and supports career advancement for both mentors and mentees. 

  • Participants will complete a one-year certificate program with a scholarly project related to their professional needs as a mentor or as an educational leader supporting mentorship programs with mentors and mentees.
  • Participants will complete a validated mentoring assessment pre- and post-program in order to demonstrate growth, comfort, and knowledge gained.
  • Participants will keep a reflective journal detailing the experiences of a current mentor/mentee relationship in order to guide their learning and growth as a mentor/mentee. This will be debriefed with a program leader in individual sessions.
  • The year-long certificate focuses on the dual role of mentors and mentees in establishing a mentor/mentee relationship; this journey will explore how the mentees roles evolve based on the developmental stage and goals of the mentee in one or more areas of their career.

The program will include every other month group workshops based on content from the IAMSE Mentoring Manual (virtual). The alternating months will be a one-on-one meet-up with a program leader/facilitator to address individual needs as a mentor and mentorship on the program project. It will conclude one year later with a three-hour workshop.

Click Here to Apply!

Application Timeline

Application Deadline

March 15, 2025

Application Notifications

April 20, 2025

Payment Required

May 1, 2025

Meet Your Facilitators! 

Alice Fornari, EdD, MS
Donald and Barbara Zucker
School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Associate Dean and Vice President

Darshana Shah, PhD
Marshall University, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Professor of Pathology & Associate Dean, Office of Faculty Advancement

Dr. Alice Fornari's research focus is medical education across the continuum of UME, GME and CME, with a focus on curriculum development/revision and the faculty development necessary to achieve both didactic and clinical curriculum innovations successfully. Due to the impact of COVID-19 Dr. Fornari's attention has shifted to the positive impact of technology on teaching and learning and the success it can support in our learning environments. Another research interest of hers is to foster and maintain the core values of medical education with learners: professionalism, humanism, compassion leading to patient-centered care. The implementation of curriculum and assessing the impact of the development of physicians as healers of illness is a focus she has pursued through numerous grants and interventions woven into existing clinical environments.

Dr. Fornari's scholarship history includes four funded HRSA grants (2004-2015) with a focus on primary care education, delivery, and ultimately patient care. All grants concluded with successful outcomes to meet the original grant proposal. Publications and numerous national presentations occurred from the grant-funded projects.

Dr. Fornari's recent career focus is on mentoring and is supported by a recent publication of a professional Manual entitled "Mentoring in Health Professions Education: Evidence-Informed Strategies Across the Continuum."
 

Dr. Darshana Shah completed her postdoctoral research training within the department of pathology at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. She has been a member of the school of medicine faculty since 1997. Her passion for service has led her to attain diverse institutional roles, notably serving as founding editor-in-chief of the Marshall Journal of Medicine (MJM), West Virginia’s first online, openaccess, peer-reviewed journal. The focus of Dr. Shah’s work has been working with institutional leaders in supporting faculty by creating resources, guiding policy-building and contributing to the development of programs and practices that have positively impacted the career advancement of faculty. Her research and scholarship delve deeply into faculty vitality and retention. Dr. Shah has held a number of leadership positions in regional, national and international organizations. She is an invited faculty for Harvard Macy Institute, Leading Innovation in Health Care & Education, an annual program where participants and faculty collaborate to develop strategies and action plans for leading innovation within evolving health care delivery systems and institutions. Dr. Shah currently leads professional development in Team Science for the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute (WVCTSI). She also has a special interest in microbiology and immunology.