IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Kelly Karpa, East Tennessee State University (Johnson City, Tennessee, USA)

Intersecting education and patient care to improve teamwork, communication, and health outcomes.

Hello, I'm Dr. Kelly Karpa, my undergraduate degree is in pharmacy. I also have a PhD in Pharmacology.  I served as an Interprofessional Education Dean at a R1 institution for many years, before accepting my current role as Associate Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Innovation at East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine. 

How did you first get involved in interprofessional education and research?  

My first foray into IPE education and research was in 2013, and resulted from being awarded with the Josiah Macy Faculty Scholars 2 year fellowship. 

What achievement are you most proud of in the area of interprofessional education and research?  

At my former institution, we launched an IPE student-led telehealth consult service in which students from PA, MD, PT, OT, Pharm, and RD programs provided profession-specific assessment and recommendations back to the primary care providers who had referred patients to the student team.  Students loved the experience and learned much from their IP colleagues, physicians loved the model, and some patient lives were changed for the better as a result of the encounter with the student teams.  We published a bit about our pilot project. 

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Sarah Meiklejohn, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)

Open communication between IPE educators, accreditation authorities and health services is essential

Dr Sarah Meiklejohn is a dietitian, educator and researcher based at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is currently a Lecturer and Education Coordinator at the Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education (MCSHE), and a Research Fellow in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University.  As an emerging methodology in health professions education, Sarah is currently sharing this applied knowledge and expertise of policy analysis across a variety of national projects. She is best known for her research focused on work integrated learning, interprofessional education and collaborative practice, accreditation, certification and regulatory policy in health professions education.

I first became involved in interprofessional education and research through my role as a Lecturer into the Masters of Dietetics at Monash University. Interprofessional practice was such a core part of my practice as a community dietitian and health promotion practitioner that I was drawn to teaching and research opportunities in this area.

Our team at Monash University was recently recognised at the 2023 All Together Better Health Conference in Qatar for our Collaborative Care Curriculum, where we received an Interprofessional.Global Award to celebrate and honour our achievements in global interprofessional collaboration. I am very proud of this achievement as it showcases the value and importance of long-term investments in interprofessional education and commitment to the development of meaningful relationships with shared goals.

As an Early Career Researcher, Interprofessional.Global is a key network for not only developing my capacity as an educator and researcher, but for shared learning and mentoring across global and regional networks to improve collaborative practice and interprofessional learning across all healthcare networks.

Finally, pineapple may only be on pizza when in the form of a Hawaiian or “the LOT” pizza, but under no other circumstances!

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Aayesha Kholvadia, Nelson Mandela University (South Africa)

Fostering Collaboration and Innovation in Interprofessional Education and Research at Nelson Mandela University.

 Who Are You? Where Are You From? And What Is Your Role

I am Dr. Aayesha Kholvadia, a dedicated senior lecturer, HOD, and researcher and the IPE chairperson at Nelson Mandela University, within the Faculty of Health Sciences. My role involves advancing interprofessional education (IPE) and research, with specific focus areas on fostering collaborative practices among healthcare professionals. This includes bringing education and engagement to the three schools within our faculty: the School of Medicine, Clinical and Medicinal Sciences, and the School of Lifestyle and Behavioural Sciences. Originating from and working in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), a city in the Eastern Cape, I am acutely aware of the health inequality challenges in both curative and preventative health in our region. I am committed to promoting innovation and cooperation in health education and practice at NMU.

How Did You First Get Involved in Interprofessional Education and Research?

I am Dr. Aayesha Kholvadia, a dedicated senior lecturer, HOD, and researcher at Nelson Mandela University, within the Faculty of Health Sciences. My role involves advancing interprofessional education (IPE) and research, with specific focus areas on fostering collaborative practices among healthcare professionals. This includes bringing education and engagement to the three schools within our faculty: the School of Medicine, Clinical and Medicinal Sciences, and the School of Lifestyle and Behavioural Sciences. Originating from and working in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), a city in the Eastern Cape, I am acutely aware of the health inequality challenges in both curative and preventative health in our region. I am committed to promoting innovation and cooperation in health education and practice at NMU.

My journey into interprofessional education and research began during my early career as a PhD candidate at Wits, where one objective focused on the multidisciplinary management of knee osteoarthritis. Additionally, I was involved in IPE sessions where different departments in the faculty worked together on cases, witnessing the transformative impact of collaborative practice on patient outcomes. This inspired me to pursue further studies and research in IPE, eventually leading to my current role where collaborative practice is a focal point of my research, engagement, and teaching.

I am a member of The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH) and the African Interprofessional Education Network (AfrIPEN), both national and international bodies dedicated to collaborative healthcare.  Further I am supervising PG students in the discipline area (3 PhD and 2 Masters and 2 undergraduate). Research collaboration with Prof W Burdick from the University of Philadelphia 

What Achievement Are You Most Proud of in the Area of Interprofessional Education and Research?

I am most proud of several significant achievements in the field of interprofessional education and research. I was a guest and invited speaker at the TUFH conference in Vancouver, Canada in 2022, which provided a platform to share insights and advancements in IPE on an international stage. Additionally, I serve as the chairperson of our faculty's IPE committee, where I lead efforts to integrate collaborative practices across different departments. I have also contributed to the academic literature, with my most recent publication being a literature review in the Patient Experience Journal titled "Patients’ Perceptions of Interprofessional Collaboration: A Scoping Review." These accomplishments have not only advanced the field but also significantly benefited our community and demonstrated the power of interprofessional collaboration.

What Does IPR.Global Mean to You?

To me, IPR.Global represents a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and innovation. It is a community that unites scholars and practitioners from around the world, dedicated to enhancing interprofessional education and research, and ultimately improving global health outcomes.

Pineapple on Pizza: Yes or No?

Pineapple definitely belongs on pizza! There’s people who eat pizza without pineapple? Is that even legal? 😊

Email: Aayesha.Kholvadia@mandela.ac.za

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Kelli Star Fox, Stony Brook University (New York, USA)

Dr. Kelli Star Fox is the inaugural Director of the Center for Interprofessional Innovation (CIPI) at Stony Brook University (New York, USA) charged with building a centralized IPE presence across health professions programs in areas of interprofessional education, research, and clinical practice. Kelli’s previous position was as associate clinical professor, director of fieldwork, and assistant director of the University of New England’s (UNE) master in social work program. A longtime champion for interprofessional education and practice, Kelli was instrumental in integrating interprofessional education and practice into UNE’s social work curriculum. As an active contributor to UNE’s Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice (CAIEP) she served as a trainer, facilitator, mentor, researcher, and designer of IPCP learning experiences.

In May 2023 Kelli completed her doctoral degree from Millersville University. Her research focused on the importance of supporting the uniprofessional identity of social workers as preparation for interprofessional team learning. Kelli explains her rationale for the study saying: “As an IPE facilitator I observed social work students struggle with finding their place and voice among other health care students. The uniprofessional pre-briefing offers these students an opportunity to anchor the unique skills and perspective the profession brings to interprofessional collaboration and begin to develop interprofessionalism.” Kelli’s work in this arena is novel and she has presented at local, national, and international conferences where her research has been well received.  Kelli is currently a member of an international team looking at positionality and the role of social work and hierarchical implications in interprofessional collaborative learning and practice.

Along with her emerging role as a researcher, Kelli’s passion for global health and wellness brings her annually to Ghana, Africa where she along with local and international practitioners and students offer clinics in multiple rural sites through the Cross-Cultural Immersion to Ghana, a program that integrates western health practices with local practices to provide culturally responsive health care to those they serve. “Working and learning alongside our partners in Ghana as well as observing cultural exchanges and friendships that happen among students, faculty, providers, and community members,” Kelli says, “have been highlights of my experience with the Immersion program.”

You can contact Kelli at: Kelli.Fox@stonybrookmedicine.edu

IPR Global Scholar Spotlight - Rogério Meireles Pinto PhD, University of Michigan (USA)

I was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and came to the United States after I finished college and received a bachelor’s in biological sciences. I lived in New York City, where I received my masters and PhD in social work. For a decade, I was a professor at Columbia University, and then I moved to Michigan, Ann Arbor. At the University of Michigan, I am the University Diversity Social Transformation Professor, Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work, and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Social Work. I also have an appointment at the Theater and Drama, School of Music, Theater & Dance. 

My research focuses on finding academic, sociopolitical, and cultural venues for broadcasting voices of oppressed individuals and groups. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), my community-engaged research focuses on the impact of interprofessional collaboration on the delivery of evidence-based services (HIV and drug-use prevention and care) to marginalized racial/ethnic and sexual minorities in the United States and Brazil. This research has illuminated specific factors, notably, interprofessional collaboration, that facilitate access to myriad social, medical, and public health services.*  

I have conducted art-based and artistic research. For example, with collaborators funded by National Institute of Health (NIH) (PIs: Windsor, Benoit, Pinto), we have developed and tested interventions that use illustrations to spark critical dialogues among formerly incarcerated men with substance use disorders.**

I performed Marília, a one-person play, on New York City's Theatre Row in 2015 and at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, Vrystaat, South Africa in 2016. In Marília, I explore the tragic death of his 3-year-old sister and how it haunts and inspires the family she left behind. Marília won the United Solo Festival Best Documentary Script. Funded by the University of Michigan Office of Research and several other sources, I built the Realm of the Dead, an art installation to investigate my own marginalization as a gender non-confirming, mixed-race, and Latinx immigrant.*** I performed the Realm of the Dead in 2021 at the University of Michigan as part of the centennial celebration of the School of Social Work, and in 2022 as the featured artist at a2ru’s national annual conference. 

Dr. Rogério Meireles Pinto bio (including contact information) at the University of Michigan: https://ssw.umich.edu/faculty/profiles/tenure-track/ropinto

REFERENCES

*Pinto, R. M., Kay, E. S., Choi, C. J., & Wall, M. (2020). Interprofessional Collaboration Improves the Odds of Educating Patients about PrEP Over Time. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(5), 1444-1451. doi: 10.1007/s11606-019-05616-0

*Pinto, R. M., Kay, E. S., Choi, C. J., & Wall, M. (2019). Interprofessional Collaboration Improves Linkages to Primary Care: A Longitudinal Analysis. AIDS Care, 32:8, 970-978, DOI: 10.1080/09540121.2019.1668537doi.

*Pinto, R. M., Witte, S., Filippone, P., Choi, J., & Wall, M. (2018). Interprofessional Collaboration and On-the-Job Training Improves Access to HIV Testing, Primary Care and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). AIDS Education and Prevention, 30, 6.

*Pinto, R. M., Rahman, R., Zanchetta, M. S., & Galhego Garcia, W. (2021). Brazil’s Community Health Workers Practicing Narrative Medicine: A Service Consumer Perspective. Journal of General Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-021-06730-8

** Windsor, L., Benoit, E., Pinto, R. M., Sarol, J. (2022). Optimization of a new adaptive intervention using the SMART Design to increase COVID-19 testing among people at high risk in an urban community. Trials, 14;23(1):310. doi: 10.1186/s13063-022-06216-w. PMID: 35421999; PMCID: PMC9009493.

*** Pinto, R. M. (2022). Realm of the Dead: A Mixed-Media Installation Performance. Ground Works.  https://groundworks.io/journal. © 2022 by Rogério Meireles Pinto is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Published: September 20, 2022. DOI https://doi.org/10.48807/2022.0.0105

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Tamzin J. Batteson BSc, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (USA)

Hello, my name is Tamzin Batteson and I have lived in 6 different countries throughout my life (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, France, Ireland and now the United States). These life experiences have made me the person that I am, which is inquisitive, sometimes bold, and fearless, thoughtful and open minded. I am also a working artist, and I use all of these perspectives in my research. I became interested in the impact that social determinants of health and disparities have on a person’s life and life outcomes as a research assistant at the National Health Service in St. Anne’s Hospital in London. The project assessed the barriers that heavy end dual diagnosis drug users and sex workers experience in trying to get housed. This led to a long term interest in health and social disparities and how to overcome such barriers in vulnerable populations. 

I realized that many barriers existed because of the way the problems were systematically approached by government and societal structures. In order to understand how people approach and solve problems, I became interested in metacognition - how people think. 

Metacognition is the skill and process to be aware of one’s own thinking and connect the dots to concepts and patterns. This is especially helpful when training students as students learn how to learn effectively and can take their metacognitive skills to a higher level in whatever profession they choose. 

I joined the Department of Education at the University of Limerick (Ireland) as a post-doctoral fellow to assess metacognitive processes, learning styles and the ‘big five’ personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Specifically, I was interested in learning how to teach teachers how to teach more effectively and developed and taught a course on “How Students Learn” to student teachers. 

Personal circumstances led me to jump over the Big Pond and I joined RFUMS and Baldwin Interprofessional Institute in 2013 as I recognized that IPE is a new, metacognitive, way of thinking about healthcare and social disparities. The study of metacognition is very theory driven. Yet IPE did not yet have a theoretical basis or understanding. It was a big missing piece. By combining IPE and metacognitive theory, I developed a research program to conduct robust and validated research in IPE, with a grounded, testable theory. By framing the problems of patient care and social disparities using metacognitive theory to underpin IPE, I hope to bring information and understanding of new perspectives to the field. 

My current research focuses on implementing metacognitive theory into aspects of interprofessional healthcare education through simulation and diagnostic reasoning and error.  I approach the journey of an individual to being part of a team by using metacognition to assess communication and how communication works within the structure of an IP team.

Learn more about the DeWitt C. Baldwin Institute for Interprofessional Education at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science: https://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/academics/interprofessional-institute/

Contact information:  tamzin.batteson@rosalindfranklin.edu

References:

• Krishnan, G., Chu J., Guo, J., Sandu, S., Yohay, S., Zhang, J., Mihajlovic, A., Batteson, T., & Loduca, A. (2023) Beyond Cultural Humility - South Asian Cultural Specificity Training Garners Reform in Medical Curricula: A Workshop for Medical Students of Free Community Clinics. World Social Psychiatry.
• Collins, K., Garber, S., Batteson, TJ., Salih, R. (2023 Interprofessional Healthcare Themes derived through Critical Discourse Analysis. Journal of Educational Studies and Multidisciplinary Approaches
• Batteson, T. J., Chirica, M. G., Fox, K. S., Froehlich, J., Garber, S. S.,  … Thuente, L. (2023). Utilizing video simulation in interprofessional education to teach IPEC competencies and social determinants of health: A universal IPE teaching tool, Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, Volume 31
• Bunting, S. R., Calabrese, S. K., Spigner, S. T., Goetz, T. G., Morrison, S. D., Zucker, S. M., ... & Batteson, T. J. (2022). Evaluating Medical Students' Views of the Complexity of Sexual Minority Patients and Implications for Care. LGBT health. 
• Chirica, M. G., & Batteson, T. J. (2022). Metacognition, Macro cognition and Moral Reasoning in Collaborative Team Decision-Making: Implications for Healthcare Education. Journal of Educational Studies and Multidisciplinary Approaches, 2(1).
• Bunting, S. R., Chirica, M. G., Ritchie, T. D., Garber, S. S., & Batteson, T. J. (2021). A National Study of Medical Students' Attitudes Toward Sexual and Gender Minority Populations: Evaluating the Effects of Demographics and Training. LGBT health, 8(1), 79-87.
• Bunting SR, Garber SS, Goldstein RH, et al. (2021). Health Profession Students' Awareness, Knowledge, and Confidence Regarding Preexposure Prophylaxis: Results of a National, Multidisciplinary Survey. Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Jan;48(1):25-31.
• Bunting, S. R., Calabrese, S. K., Garber, S. S., Ritchie, T. D., & Batteson, T. J. (2021). Where Do Health Professions Students Learn About Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV Prevention?. Medical Science Educator, 1-5.
• Olivier, M. M., Polachek, C. A., Park, C., Batteson, T., & LoDuca, A. L. (2020). Ocular risk factors for eye disease and associated sociodemographic factors in underserved communities within greater Chicagoland. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 61(7), 1579-1579.
• Bunting, S. R., Garber, S. S., Goldstein, R. H., Ritchie, T. D., Batteson, T. J., & Keyes, T. J. (2020). Student Education About Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Varies Between Regions of the United States. Journal of general internal medicine, 1-9.
• Bunting, S.R., Saqueton, R. & Batteson, T.J. (2019). A Guide for designing student-led, interprofessional community education initiatives about HIV risk and pre-exposure prophylaxis. MedEdPORTAL
• Fewster-Thuente L, Batteson T. (2018). Teaching Collaboration Competencies to healthcare provider students through simulation. J of Allied Health. 47(1): 3-8. 
• Fewster-Thuente L, Batteson T. (2018). Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory as an underpinning for interprofessional education. J of Allied Health. 47(1): 3-8. 
• Batteson T, Garber S. (2018). Assessing constructs underlying Interprofessional Competencies through the design of a new measure of Interprofessional Education. J of Interprofessional Education and Practice. 
• Comerford, J., Batteson, T., & Tormey, R. (2015). Academic buoyancy in second level schools: Insights From Ireland. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 98-103.
• Batteson, T., Tormey, R., Ritchie, T, D. (2013) Strategic approaches to learning, metacognition and personality in higher education learners; an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of three instruments. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 2561-2567.
• Rothi, D., Batteson, T. Leavey, G. (2005) Drug user consultation: Assessing housing and social care needs. Report Commissioned by the 'Drug and Alcohol Action Team' Haringey

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad, University of New England (USA)

Hello from the beautiful state of Maine. My name is Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad and I’m the founding Director of the Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice at the University of New England (UNE). The Center is the IPE hub for UNE providing interprofessional programming across its campuses in Biddeford and Portland Maine. UNE also has a satellite campus in Tangier Morocco. 

I’m a clinical social worker by training having come to academia and the world of research and scholarship as a second, midlife career. As a social worker my primary focus was on children and families (1) and as such, I worked closely with workers from many disciplines including medicine, education, rehabilitation, mental health, and juvenile corrections. In 1997 I co-founded a non-profit, Kids First, whose mission was and continues to be to help children and families during parental separation and divorce. My very first peer reviewed article, Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between Mental Health Practitioners and Lawyers with Divorcing Families: Building Pathways for Communication and Practice was published in 2001 in the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage. It was a prescient forecast of my later career focused on interprofessional research and scholarship.

Days after completing my doctorate at Simmons College in Boston I was approached by the University of New England to teach in their Master of Social Work program. At first reluctant to leave pediatric social work practice, I thought the opportunity to teach amongst multiple health professions was an enticing way to spend what I was then calling my ‘retirement’ job. Once situated at UNE I quickly discovered that rather than learning together, health professions programs were not only siloed, but didn’t seem to particularly like or respect one another. I learned that UNE had made past efforts to develop an interprofessional culture, but it had failed mostly because the initiative was top down rather than generated by faculty and student priorities. In 2006 along with a small cohort of colleagues, I began hosting lunches and developing co-designed interprofessional activities with colleagues similarly interested in disrupting the silo culture. In 2010 UNE’s Interprofessional Education Collaborative was launched. The Collaborative grew exponentially as faculty, students, community partners, and professional staff realized the utility of bringing students together to learn health professions skills and knowledge. 

My original areas of research interest stemmed from my doctoral work with parents of children who acquired life affecting illnesses and disabilities. My work expanded to better understanding tenets of relational learning and practice, which naturally intersected with interprofessional education. I also became intrigued by the association between the arts and health professions pedagogy (2) being an avid art collector myself. 

Currently I’m passionate about collaborative and cross-institutional research and scholarship projects, which is what drew me to IPR.Global. It’s been a pleasure being part of a group whose common interests so, align. Its also so much fun networking and making connections with colleagues from all over the world. Apart from my dorkish, academic side, I enjoy baking, reading mystery novels, hiking, and spending time on the beautiful coast of Maine with my family, friends, and constant companion, Hank, a Boston Terrier.

To learn more about the UNE Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice: www.une.edu/caiep

Contact Dr. Cohen Konrad at: scohenkonrad@une.edu

REFERENCES

1. Cohen Konrad, S. (2019) Child and Family Practice: A Relational Perspective, Second Edition.  New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Cohen Konrad, S. & Sela-Amit, M. (Eds.) Social Work and the Arts: Expanding Horizons. (January 2024).

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Celia Matyanga, University of Zimbabwe

Hello, I’m Celia Matyanga. I am a pharmacist by profession and an academic by choice. I come from Harare in Zimbabwe, currently employed as a lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Zimbabwe). I am also a PhD candidate with the same university in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology. 

“Your network is your net worth,” (J.Rohn). My achievements are attributed to my networks and the collaborations formed, I never would’ve made it by myself.

My interest in interprofessional education and research grew from the time I completed my Masters and joined academia in 2013. Then, I worked at the Harare Institute of Technology as a pharmacy practice lecturer. In 2015, I was awarded training in operational research under the Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT), global partnership of WHO and other funders. I was privileged to work with health professionals from diverse backgrounds and nationalities and we successfully completed and published the project in Public Health Action. Thereafter, another opportunity arose through the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the African Union Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (AU-STRC). This was an international fellowship for training on research methodology and biostatistical analysis, where we networked with researchers from all over Africa and India. In 2019-2020, I participated in the Health Education Advanced Leadership Program in Zimbabwe (HEALZ). The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Sub-Saharan Africa Young Talents Award and the NIH Fogarty International Center HIV/AIDS Research Training Program were other notable highlights. Currently, I am involved in the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) for the African Excellence in Research: Zimbabwe Gender in STEMM Project. This program fosters interprofessional mentorship in research.

IPR.Global is an excellent platform to network and collaborate with other researchers. Currently, I am a training in the Prof. James Hakim Leadership Development Programme that instils key leadership competencies for different health professions education leaders across African institutions. I am also a trainee in the AREF Essential Grant Writing Skills Workshop, which strengthens health research capacity of scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa.

And finally, should pineapple be on pizza? 

Most definitely YES! Sweet and tangy pizza with pineapple is the best.

To contact Celia, email: celiammj@yahoo.com 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9799-136X  

LinkedIn: Celia MJ Matyanga

Twitter: @celiammj

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Stella Ng, University of Toronto Centre for Interprofessional Education (Canada)

Hello to the IPE/IPC community. My name is Stella Ng PhD, Reg.CASLPO and since May of 2021, I have been the director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Interprofessional Education. I spent nearly a decade prior to this as the director of research at the same university's Centre for Faculty Development. So, I am no stranger to health professions education; yet I am somewhat new to the IPE/IPC community. That said, while I am treating this spotlight submission as an introductory piece for myself, I must say it has felt more like returning home since I changed roles. 

I started out in my career as an educational audiologist, liaising between health care institutions and the public education system. I worked closely with children and their families, teachers and principals, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and clinical professionals (e.g. developmental pediatricians). It was from this practice experience that my passion for education science was eventually born. I went back to school and completed a PhD in Health Professional Education after the wonderful health professions education scholar Anne Kinsella handed me the book “The Reflective Practitioner” by Donald Schön. This book resonated with the indeterminate zones of practice I had found myself working within. While my formal education had exposed me to “evidence-based practice” as one way to approach practice, this model was falling short in the unique, value-conflicted, uncertain, and dynamic context of school-based health. So, for the past 15 years I have been studying reflective practice as a way of navigating the uncertainty of everyday practice. I have studied critical reflection as a way of reflecting that calls attention and propels change to unhelpful/harmful assumptions, power relations and social structures. And I have been studying and advancing transformative education and critical pedagogical approaches that help health professionals be critically reflective practitioners. I sum up my research, education, and leadership praxis as “critical reflection & pedagogy for collaborative, compassionate, ethical health care / science.” 

I am so thrilled to come home to the IPE/IPC community after a decade spent in faculty development and a bit more in the medical education world. While IPE and medical education are both a part of the broad health professions education field, there is a certain familiarity in the collaborative healthcare and education context. I believe collaborative approaches are more important than ever as we work together to create a world where trust and a deep sense of belonging are the standard, for all who seek or work in healthcare. I am looking forward to learning and working together with this community, toward a vision of a healthier world. 

Email Dr. Ng at: stella.ng@utoronto.ca

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Nhlanganiso Nyathi, Anglia Ruskin University (UK)

Hello, my name is Dr. Nhlanganiso Nyathi and I am an Associate Professor of Social Work at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in UK. I am originally from Zimbabwe. I am very passionate and committed to about the capacity for of interprofessional education and research in transforming in preparing health and social care students for readiness to transforming the health and well-being for vulnerable people.

I initially became curious about how a multidisciplinary approach could mitigate the challenges faced by children who survive off the streets of my home City of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s. After successfully leading a donor funded Bulawayo Taskforce on Street Children initiative, I later embarked on Doctoral research in interprofessional child protection decision making following some years interprofessional social work practice, leadership and teaching in the UK.

My proudest moments in the area of interprofessional education and research include:

• Achieving my PhD award followed by a number of publications in the area of interprofessional education and research. 
• Serving in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care IPL strategic working group.
• Becoming a member of Africa Interprofessional Education Network (AfriPEN).
• Becoming a member of Afri-VIPE (a virtual IPE under the auspices of AfriPEN).

Having contributed and impacted interprofessional education and research at university and national levels, taking this passion to a global level through IPR.Global seems quite a logical professional progression form me.

And finally, should pineapple be on pizza? 

An absolute NO!

To contact Dr. Nyathi email: Nhlanganiso.Nyathi@aru.ac.uk

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Renata Eccles, University of Pretoria (South Africa)

The bigger the dream, the more important the team

Hello, my name is Dr Renata Eccles, I am a speech-language therapist and senior lecturer from the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria in South Africa. I am predominantly involved in early childhood development, early communication intervention specifically. 

I am part of the team of lecturers involved in the INtwegrated Health Leadership modules at the University of Pretoria. These are multidisciplinary modules running from 1st to 3rd year that focus on interprofessional collaboration to achieve community engagement. I am most proud to chair the IPE theme for the Dirisana+ project. 

IPR.Global is valuable because it provides a network which further opportunities to connect with the IPECP community. 

And finally, should pineapple be on pizza? Yes or No? 

No, no, no. As an Italian, pineapple on pizza is not for me. But you do you

Dr. Eccles email: renata.mosca@up.ac.za

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. John H. V. Gilbert, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC Canada)

Hello, I am John Gilbert. Throughout my long career I have been passionately interested in the education of health and social care professionals, not only in British Columbia, and Canada, but also globally. I have attempted through my research, teaching, writing and public speaking to embed the concept of interprofessional education as a central tenet of collaborative people-centred practice and care. Like Chaucer’s Clerk of Oxford, “gladly wolde I lerne and gladly teche.”

I was the founding Director of the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences at the University of British Columbia and the Principal of the College of Health Disciplines, also at UBC. It is my privilege and pleasure to be a Senior Scholar at the WHO Collaborating Centre on Health Workforce Planning and Research, Dalhousie University, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney. I have been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and at the National University of Malaysia. From 2016 2020 it was my great honour to hold the DR. TMA Pai Endowment Chair in Interprofessional Education & Practice, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India a program with which I count myself most fortunate to remain connected. 

As Co-Chair of the WHO Study Group on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice I worked with colleagues around the world to develop a framework for action on those topics – now adopted worldwide, in innumerable education and practice jurisdictions. Our work on IPE, supported by Health Canada, led to my role as founding chair of the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative – now one of the members of the confederation – Interprofessional.Global, and its special interest group Interprofessional Research.Global. I have the joy of being accorded many honours of which I am proud - a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada, the degree Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa from Dalhousie University. Together with Dr. Bud Baldwin and Dr Mattie Schmitt I was immensely honoured to be a recipient of the Pioneer Award from the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.

My greatest joy, and a source of lasting pleasure, has been the invitations I have received to give talks (and Webinars) on IPE in 24 countries during the past 16 years. My academic background gives me a particular focus on communication between and amongst everyone engaged along the continuum of IPE. I never cease to be incredibly impressed by the ways in which our new discipline is being woven into education and practice in so many different cultures and languages. I have always been so warmly greeted in each country I have visited  on the “business of IPE” and have made amazing friends and colleagues in all those places. Every day I recognize how blessed I am to be in the company of those who, around the world, are working in many new and innovative ways to embed the discipline of IPE in their health and social care education and practice programmes. 

During each season of the year, you may find me pottering in my vegetable garden – amazed, always, that seeds often less than a few millimetres in size, can produce such wonderful food.

Interprofessional Research.Global Scholar Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights member research in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.  

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Jill Thistlethwaite, NSW Health and University of Technology (Sydney, Australia)

Hi. I'm Jill Thistlethwaite originally from Manchester in the north of England; now living in Australia 300km north of Sydney.  I work with the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) of NSW Health and am an adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). I was the editor-in-chief of The Clinical Teacher until December 2020.  One of my passions is writing and I have published books, book chapters and articles on IPE over the last twenty-five years including Values-based interprofessional collaborative practice (2012) and a series of four edited books with Dawn Forman (UK) and Marion Jones (New Zealand) focusing on leadership in IPE with chapters from authors around the globe.  

I trained as a general practitioner (family doctor) in England and worked full-time in a semi-rural practice there for 10 years. My involvement with medical education began in general practice as a GP trainer and postgraduate GP program organiser. In the early 1990s we developed some sessions for GP registrars and practice nurses, which was my 1st experience of IPE. In 1996 I became a senior lecturer in medical education and general practice at Leeds University and was invited by Prof Hugh Barr to become an associate editor for the Journal of Interprofessional Care a few years later.  

In partnership with colleagues, I have developed IPE at several universities in the UK and Australia. I was a founder member of AIPPEN (the Australasian Interprofessional Practice and Education Network).   A team I led with academics from Australia, the UK and Canada received an Australian grant in 2012 to develop a teamwork assessment instrument, iTOFT: the individual teamwork and observation feedback tool.   

I am most proud of being a Fulbright senior scholar at the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education in Minneapolis in 2014 and being invited to speak at the Institute of Medicine in Washington DC on ‘what is evidence in relation to IPE?’ I have also had the honour to be an invited speaker and facilitator in many countries including Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia.  

IPR.Global to me is a community of practice of which I have been a member since 2012. We need high quality research and evaluation to explore the impact of IPE and collaborative practice, and what works for whom and in what contexts.  

Find me on Twitter @jthistlethwaite 

I do sometimes homebake pizza and would never add pineapple. 

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr's Inci and Giray Kolcu, Suleyman Demirel University (Turkey)

We, Assist. Prof. Dr. M. İnci Başer Kolcu and Assist. Prof. Dr. Giray Kolcu, are from Turkey,Isparta. We are in the Department of Medical Education and Informatics at Suleyman Demirel University, School of Medicine. Designing curriculum is one of our main roles. By the way, we are in an IPE leadership role at our university. In addition to our doctorate studies in medical education, Dr. Inci is a DDS, specialist in endodontics and Dr. Giray is a MD, specialist in family medicine. The studies about “interprofessional education” has just started in Turkey at the beginning of 2000s. There are a few local examples of practice but unfortunately has not widely applied yet. So our main goal is planning an educational curriculum based on IPE in Suleyman Demirel University and with this purpose Dr. Inci planned a doctoral thesis about the effectiveness of a communication skill program based on IPE. We met with IPR.Global via the doctoral thesis studies of Dr. Inci. 

IPR.Global welcomed us very friendly and we learned a lot from this group. With the Covid-19 pandemic, we joined the IPR.Global events more common. The meetings gave us a different vision and opens our minds. We want to underline that IPR.Global is an environment where the word "interprofessional" is internalized. It is a very fruitful and joyful environment that provides a very rich learning opportunity. As we love learning, we tried to contribute to this beautiful environment as much as we could. We had the opportunity to work with very valuable names in the field and benefit from their experiences. We had some roles in some global researches and proud of ourselves. Currently, we focused on Turkish adaptation studies of scales such as IPAS (Interprofessional Attitudes Scale) and EPIS (Extended Professional Identity Scale). And in our school of medicine, we put the "interprofessional education" approach in the faculties' educational goals and objectives for the first time in undergraduate medical education program. We are working on designing educational programs based on IPE for school of medicine and school of health sciences both. 

We believe that most problems that are thought to be specific to people and institutions or countries in the health and social fields are common problems that everyone faces in the world. Working together to make things better is meaningful, valuable and facilitating. And above all, accompanying and witnessing the emergence of a global response is invaluable. IPR.Global is important because they enable these responses from a scientific point of view and allow co-production. You can contact us in all the fields of Interprofessional education/communication/collaboration/research Contact us: mukadderkolcu@sdu.edu.tr and giraykolcu@sdu.edu.tr.

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Angela Cecil, Spalding University (USA)

Hello, I am Dr. Angela Cecil, a life-long native of Kentucky and an experienced academician in occupational therapy, a new researcher with a passion for interprofessional education and collaboration, and a seasoned occupational therapist in adult rehabilitation but with a fast-and-furiously growing interest in community- and population-based practice. 

I have participated in trials-alliance IPE workshops for approximately 5 years with students and faculty from occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology in Louisville, KY. My contributions to this team facilitated an interest in IPE, which became the topic of my dissertation: Applying an ecological perspective to interprofessional education: Attitude changes in students of the tri-alliance

Some of my greatest achievements include: earning my PhD in spring 2021, actively participating in interprofessional organizations, establishing new and life-long relationships with IPE/C influencers, thinkers, and leaders from whom I will learn and will pass on to the generation after me

IPR. Global provides the opportunity to learn from and work with other health and social care professionals for establishing consistency of thought and practice to make marked, measurable, and sustainable differences in the health of humans, animals, and the planet

Just say no to pineapple on pizza! Say yes to extra pizza sauce and cheese!

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Amanda Garey, Texas Children's Hospital (USA)

My name is Amanda Garey PhD(c), MSN, RN, NPD-BC; I am from League City, Texas. I work in the Texas Medical Center at Texas Children's Hospital as an Accredited Provider Program Director. I have worked in various bedside roles and as a nurse educator in obstetrics and pediatrics. My family drives my passion for my profession and service to my community. 

It is our responsibility as health care professionals to lead with a collaborative mindset to shift the paradigm to team-based healthcare. As a team, health care professionals have the power influence positive outcomes related to staff retention, satisfaction, and patient outcomes. Teams work together to win; it takes each unique position to gain control of the game!

I first got involved in interprofessional education and research when I joined the Houston Area Perinatal Program executive community in 2012 after working in the obstetric field since 2004 as labor and delivery nurse. I began teaching fetal monitoring for the consortium throughout the community while leveraging consortium courses for our perinatal nursing staff. I became passionate about interprofessional education early in my career as an obstetric nurse. I find it exceptionally important for nurses and interprofessional licensed health care providers to learn together in high reliability environments to improve patient outcomes. In particular, nurses and physicians learning the same critical elements as it relates specialized clinical practice during entry to the clinical environment. For example, fetal monitoring interpretation and obtaining specialty certifications.

I am most proud of my current dissertation research around interprofessional collaboration in the context of complex clinical-based health systems. The study's primary objectives are to analyze the current state of team collaboration within an urban-based pediatric clinical practice setting and determine the impact of an educational intervention on the level of team collaboration in three subscales of collaborative practice in an urban pediatric hospital. I also serve as president for the Association for Nursing Professional Development – Houston Affiliate and as a volunteer appraiser with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Primary Accreditation and Joint Accreditation Program.

I am excited to join IPR.Global and look forward to the experiences that lie ahead with networking and collaborative opportunities! IPR.Global represents a growing population of content experts shifting the paradigm to improve collaborative work across the globe and transform staff satisfaction and patient outcomes.  

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Anne Griffin, University of Limerick (Ireland)

Hello to the IPR.Global community!  My name is Dr. Anne Griffin and I live in county Clare on the west coast of Ireland quite close to the famous Cliffs of Moher.  I am a registered dietitian and lecturer on a Master’s programme of Human Nutrition & Dietetics at the University of Limerick. I have a  Honours Diploma in Dietetics from Dublin Institute of Technology, a BSc In Human Nutrition from Trinity College, Dublin, a PhD from Dublin Institute of Technology and I am graduating this Autumn with a MA in Teaching, Learning and Assessment from the University of Limerick.  I am an active member of the Irish Nutrition & Dietetic Institute and currently am the interim Chair of the senior management team.  I am a member of the Education and Lifelong Learning committee of the European Federation of Dietetic Associations. My current research interests include exploring integrated nutrition care to address malnutrition among older adults,  exploration of the influencing factors on participant attendance at structured education programmes for Type 2 Diabetes, development of nutrition competencies among healthcare professionals, faculty training needs to support interprofessional education, Mediterranean diet and rheumatoid arthritis (MEDRA), PBL delivery and student experience.

I first became involved in interprofessional education and research when I joined the academic staff at the School of Allied Health, UL in 2018.  Prior to this I worked in the area of health promotion and wellbeing where interprofessional practice was core to enabling individuals and communities to increase control over their own health.  I currently co-ordinate the interprofessional education modules that are a key feature of the curricula delivered across five pre-registration programmes in the school.  Towards the award of my recent MA, I completed a study exploring faculty training needs to support and enhance IPE.  As a team of academic, practice education, administration and students we were awarded the prestigious Disciplinary Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment (DELTA) Award in May 2021 in recognition of our excellence in IPE teaching and learning enhancement initiatives. https://www.teachingandlearning.ie/2021/05/25/teams-from-mtu-ucc-and-ul-receive-delta-awards/

 I am delighted to join the IPR.Global community and look forward to opportunities to share experiences, network and develop further knowledge and skills in IPE with international colleagues.

 You can find out more about me at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1581-2998 or follow me on Twitter @Griffin_AnneC

Interprofessional Research.Global Scholar Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights member research in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.  

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Juliet Savanhu, National Health Service (UK)

Hello, my name is Juliet Savanhu and I am an enthusiastic nursing and clinical research practitioner who believes that we cannot entirely work as individuals as educators or researchers. Still, we need to collaborate with other professionals with different expertise.

I am a Zimbabwean born, United Kingdom-based Registered General Nurse currently working within the National Health Service (NHS). I have a wide range of clinical research experience as a Research Nurse. I am also an accredited UK Higher Education Fellow with nurse teaching experience in higher education institutions and clinical settings.  I recently joined IPR Global through an invitation, and I am a new member who is looking forward to being part of the team.

I am most proud of my work to support and mentor students from nursing, medical, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy specialities. Whether it is during their clinical placements, educational practice, or helping them design their dissertation projects, I have enjoyed being part of their journey to achieve their goals. 

What does IPR.Global mean to me?

IPR Global is essential to me as I will be collaborating with other global educators and researchers to improve IPR at global level. By joining IPR Global, I will have the opportunity to work with other educators from different professional backgrounds.

Should pineapple be on pizza?

Yes, definitely! It’s the only way to eat pizza.

Interprofessional Research.Global Scholar Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights member research in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.  

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Esther DeGroot, University Medical Center UMC-Utrecht (Netherlands)

Hello!  My name is Dr. Esther de Groot and I work at the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht, where most of my work is in lifelong (informal) learning of professionals from different disciplines. I am enthusiastic about, committed to, and knowledgeable in medical education (research). My expertise is in specific research methods (realist reviews, video-stimulated recall interviews, and social network methods) and theories (boundary crossing theories, activity theory, social capital theory) which could be valuable for IPR.Global. My role is in supervising, initiating, and performing research. Finally, I keep a clear eye on opportunities for co-writing proposals to obtain research grants. 

While working in veterinary medicine, I became interested in OneHealth, which asks for education in interprofessional collaboration. Then I started working at the Medical School, doing research, and one of the PhD students for whom I became a supervisor was someone who, as a general practitioner, had been interested her whole life in intraprofessional collaboration (between professionals in primary and secondary care). Her enthusiasm for the topic was contagious. Also, the work of Sanne Akkerman on boundary-crossing inspires me as it emphasises the learning opportunities that differences between people and between contexts provide; interprofessional – and intraprofessional collaboration hence became one of my core research topics.

As a researcher, I am particularly proud on this publication:

Meijer, L. J., de Groot, E., Honing-de Lange, G., Kearney, G., Schellevis, F. G., & Damoiseaux, R. A. M. J. (2021). Transcending boundaries for collaborative patient care. Medical Teacher, 43(1), 27-31. doi:10.1080/0142159X.2020.1796947 

I just joined the network of IPR.Global because I expect that it will provide an opportunity to join forces in the field of research into learning for interprofessional and intraprofessional collaboration. International comparisons between the ways that facilitating learning of such collaboration has been organized will be valuable to develop the learning health system which is, as we have seen in the pandemic, more and more global. As a result of the partnership within IPR.Global, we might be able to acquire grants for collaborative research projects. Finally, I could represent IPR-Global toward the large group of medical education researchers in the Netherlands.

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IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Gayle Halas, University of Manitoba (Canada)

Hello! My name is Gayle Halas, RDH, MA, PhD. and I am the the inaugural Rady Chair in Interprofessional Collaborative Practice at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada).  This locally supported research chair focuses on interprofessional collaborative practice research and scholarship; provides leadership in training, educating, and mentoring future leaders in interprofessional collaborative practice; and builds upon collaborative relationships between educational and practice systems.  

My current research is focused on team-based primary health care, and the communication and interactions that enable collaborative practice, particularly for addressing complex needs and care. Focusing on complex needs has resulted in collaborations with teams examining the older adult care continuum, team approaches for addressing substance use disorders, and transitions in care that are informed by stakeholder experiences and perspectives. My current work is exploring virtual visits in primary care, practice-level factors influencing interprofessional teamwork, and patient/public/caregiver experiences of team-based care. I have also been working with a team developing an interprofessional student-infused community health centre, targeting community needs for chronic disease and experiential learning for interprofessional practice building. 

I am also a provincial research lead in a pan-Canadian primary and integrated health care research network, launched in 2014 by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. This alliance of researchers, policy makers, clinicians and patient/public members aims to create evidence that can inform learning and practice systems as well be readily implemented for improved health services.  

In 2006, after a clinical career as a dental hygienist, I moved into a research role with the department of family medicine and, with some great mentorship, later appointed director of  research in the department.  I developed (perhaps even inherited!) an appreciation for the expertise of a team in providing patient-centred comprehensive primary care. In many ways, interprofessional practice was an assumption within the research that was conducted and the ways in which care was provided. 

What achievement are you most proud of in the area of interprofessional education and research?

Diverse partnerships. I am currently working with a breadth of key stakeholders, including members of the community with various lived experiences of homelessness, caregiving through to managing one’s own health and basic communication with health care providers.  I value the partnerships I have formed with policy-makers and realize the importance of situating research within the systems of care. I am fortunate to have dedicated researchers with whom I collaborate, from within my own academic institution as well as from other Canadian universities and extending to one international team.

What does IPR.Global mean to you? 

The experts in Interprofessional Education and Practice Research – and a focused community of practice!  The structures and processes supporting interprofessional collaboration are ripe for investigation and there is great potential to collaborate, compare and contrast what is working and why. 

And finally, should pineapple be on pizza? Yes or No?

Absolutely and especially if accompanied by Canadian bacon! 

Interprofessional Research.Global Scholar Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights member research in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.  

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