Institute Structure and Design Principles

The C-Change Mentoring & Leadership Institute is designed as a learning community that emphasizes peer consultation and sharing of perspectives and expertise. During each intensive daylong session, the group of participating Fellows will engage in a structured process of career development, as well as learn skills in key areas for career advancement. All sessions will prioritize attention to the culture and communication within the group.

Meetings are designed to embody characteristics of the culture needed in medical schools to support relationship formation, alignment of personal core values and professional goals, and meaningful careers. The facilitated group process will be characterized by non-hierarchical peer relationships, self-direction and reflection. The sessions will employ experiential and cognitive learning methods, reflective practices and innovation dialogue strategies.

Each C-Change Fellow will be guided through the steps of formulating a written personal Academic Development Plan that will include long and short-term objectives, and suggestions on how to accomplish the identified goals. Participants will not only learn skills relevant to their careers, but also have the opportunity to experience new learning methods and mentoring skills they can utilize in their work.

Eligibility of Participants

• Mid-career and senior faculty in academic medicine desiring to advance their careers and enhance their leadership roles
• MD, PhD or equivalent advanced degree

Physicians and scientists from all departments in academic health centers are welcome to apply. We encourage the participation of colleagues from the same institution or department. Participation will be limited to no more than 18 faculty. To be selected for admission to the Institute fellowship, applicants must commit to attend all four sessions.

C-Change received an NIH grant to conduct a randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy of the C-Change Mentoring & Leadership Institute model. The trial demonstrated medium to very large positive effects in improving faculty vitality and increasing self-efficacy in career advancement, research success, and mentoring others. The intervention also caused improvement in cross-cultural awareness as measured by cognitive empathy, valuing diversity—attitudes and behaviors, and recognition of and skills to address sexism and racism. Find out more.

Registration for this yearlong C-Change Institute is $9,850 and includes all session tuition fees, course materials, hotel accommodation, and all meals during the program. Limited scholarship funding is available. We encourage prospective Fellows to inquire within their institutions for funding. Many former Fellows have been successful in having the full cost of C-Change Institute tuition funded by their institutions, often from across departmental, institutional, and faculty affairs sources.

The Institute’s deposit of $700 is non-refundable. If enrollment is cancelled up to 45 days in advance of the Institute start date, a refund of 50% of the tuition fee will be available. C-Change is unable to offer refunds fewer than 45 days in advance of the program start date. C-Change incurs fixed non-refundable accommodation costs and substantial administrative costs in preparation for your attendance, and we are not able to fill the place a Fellow has assumed on enrollment.

All C-Change Institute sessions and overnight accommodation will take place at a lovely and secluded seaside, historic inn. The inn sits on 2.7 acres in Little Compton, RI, near the tip of Sakonnet Point. The property features spacious well-appointed guest rooms, beach access, outdoor terraces and gorgeous water views.

The venue is specifically chosen so that our only distraction will be the natural beauty of the surroundings. The cost of residential accommodation, meals and tuition are included in the registration fee. The Institute takes full Covid precautions including appropriate ventilation during meetings.

The closest airports are Providence (T.F. Green International Airport) and Boston (General E.L. Logan International Airport). Amtrak trains stop at Providence. Detailed travel information will be provided to participants.

Dr. Pololi is Distinguished Research Scientist at Brandeis University and Director, the National Initiative on Gender, Culture & Leadership in Medicine: C-Change (for culture change). Dedicated to improving the culture of academic medicine through research and action, C-Change aims to promote an inclusive, affirming, relational working environment for all faculty and trainees, and to increase diversity of leadership in academic medicine.

Dr. Pololi is nationally recognized for her research on the culture of academic medicine and for her innovative contributions to the professional and personal development of faculty in academic medicine. She developed (and is a leading proponent of) an evidence-based collaborative peer group approach to mentoring and leadership development that is predictably reliable in facilitating career enhancement for medical faculty. Her recent multi-institutional research on the academic medical environment showed the importance of the “culture” to faculty vitality, challenging academic leaders to be change agents. The validated C-Change Surveys for medical faculty, residents and students have been used by many medical schools in the United States, Canada and the UK.

Prior to C-Change, she was a professor of medicine and vice chancellor for education, and was funded by US DHHS as Founding Director to establish one of four vanguard National Centers of Leadership in Academic Medicine. She is a certified facilitator for the Center for Courage and Renewal and for the Academy on Communication in Healthcare.

Dr. Pololi is the principal investigator of an NIH five-year study of the C-Change Mentoring & Leadership Institute. This rigorous mixed methods study includes a randomized controlled trial to assess effectiveness and delineate its mechanisms of action.

Dr. Pololi was the recipient of the 2011 AAMC Women in Medicine and Science Leadership Development Award.