Purpose
Medical educators need targeted faculty development to build skills in educational scholarship that support promotion and tenure. At Indiana University School of Medicine—a large, geographically dispersed institution with 8 regional campuses and a main campus in Indianapolis—a key challenge is providing accessible, relevant professional development opportunities across the system.

Methods
In Fall 2019, we launched Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) to enhance faculty expertise in medical education research. Open to all faculty statewide, each FLC included 4–6 educators collaborating on a research project, mentored by an experienced faculty member. Teams met monthly via Zoom for 2 years to share ideas, set goals, assign tasks, and advance scholarly work. Participants also attended monthly webinars to develop foundational research skills.

Results
To date, 105 educators (preclinical and clinical) have participated in 19 FLC teams. Project topics included Artificial Intelligence, Clinical Competence Assessment, Biomedical Education, Health Equity, Interprofessional Education, Mentoring, Preclinical Instruction, and Wellness.
Midpoint and end-of-term satisfaction surveys (79% response rate) showed:
86% rated their experience as Good to Excellent
79% agreed FLCs met professional development needs
62% expressed interest in future participation
40% submitted work for publication or presentation
Participants received certificates and letters of recognition, shared with department chairs for promotion consideration.

Conclusions
FLCs fostered collaboration across campuses, strengthened research capacity, and provided a scalable, cost-effective model for faculty development. While lack of protected time remains a challenge, especially for clinicians, departmental support helps mitigate this. With strong administrative support, FLCs offer a replicable model to advance educational scholarship across academic medical centers.