After nearly a year of development, the UF College of Medicine recently launched the Faculty Mentorship Resource Center, a centralized online hub where faculty can access key college resources and connect with mentors to receive personalized coaching to aid their professional development.

The center, created as part of the people pillar of the college’s strategic plan, aims to cultivate a community for faculty through an online dashboard, hosted by Chronus, that promotes a workplace culture of growth and collaboration. The peer-to-peer platform, the first of what will be three Chronus portals within the center, allows prospective mentors and mentees to build an online profile and find matches based on shared interests.

“People are at the heart of the organization and our goal is to create an inclusive environment where our faculty can experience professional growth and development,” said Jennifer Bizon, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the department of neuroscience. “The Faculty Mentorship Resource Center is structured to break down departmental barriers and match individuals across the college and help them find the people who can help them be successful.”

Visit ufmedmentor.chronus.com to create a Chronus account and sign up for the Faculty Mentorship Resource Center.

At the UF College of Medicine and UF Health Shands, faculty and staff have prioritized sustainability for years, eliminating waste, rehauling procedures and discovering new opportunities to be eco-friendly each step of the way.

“As clinicians, we vow to take care of our patients and we vow to do no harm; I always say we should do no harm not only to our patients but to the environment as well,” said Lauren Berkow, M.D., FASA, a professor of anesthesiology and chief of the division of neuroanesthesiology at UF. “Clinicians play a really important role in educating our patients about how to be healthier and more sustainable, and we need to practice it ourselves and help the hospital reduce its carbon footprint.”

Berkow is a clinical sustainability champion at UF and co-chair of the UF Health Sustainability Committee with Tedd Comerford, associate vice president of supply chain services at UF Health Shands. Their leadership, along with support and dedication from the UF Office of Sustainability and stakeholders throughout the academic health center, has helped increase awareness of eco-friendly activities, save money and protect the environment.

In recognition of that impact, UF Health Shands Hospital has received environmental excellence awards from Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in health care, four years in a row.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” 

These words, spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., urge communities to come together and work toward a better world, acting as a reminder that a life worth living is spent in the service of others.

Whether as individuals caring for family, friends and neighbors or as a community serving students, patients, colleagues and the region, faculty, staff, learners, trainees and alumni at the College of Medicine create lasting value through their daily efforts to make the world better. Here, a few members of the college community discuss the service projects they participate in and the importance of giving back in their own words.

Members of the Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery participate in monthly community service projects, launched by Brian Hoh, M.D., M.B.A., when he became chair in 2018. “It’s a way for faculty, staff, trainees and students to roll up their sleeves and work side by side to help our community in a setting where there is no hierarchy,” Hoh said. “We’re all part of the team giving back.”

During the 2022 College of Medicine Celebration of Diversity Week, the college hosted a panel discussion featuring community leaders and advocates, who shared their thoughts on what the college and UF Health are doing well to address equity and inclusion among the community and potential collaborations in the future that can drive greater progress.