The Council of Faculty and Academic Societies
Value Proposition
Understanding the Benefits of CFAS membership
August 2014
Association of
American Medical Colleges
The Council of Faculty and Academic Societies Value Proposition
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) established the Council of Faculty and
Academic Societies (CFAS) in 2013 to serve as a bidirectional conduit of engagement between medical
school faculty and the association. CFAS offers an unparalleled opportunity to bring the voice of
medical school faculty (150,000 strong nationwide) to the conversation, helping to shape the direction
and activities of the AAMC and its member institutions. In addition to voicing the faculty perspective to
the AAMC, CFAS communicates back to academic societies and medical school faculty about the
initiatives and perspectives of the association.
Through its work, CFAS is committed to engaging and bringing value to the following stakeholders:
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Medical schools and faculty
Academic societies
The AAMC
Medical Schools and Faculty
CFAS provides a conduit for bidirectional engagement between medical school faculty and the AAMC,
including venues for faculty to communicate their day-to-day concerns to association leadership. No one
knows better than faculty—both clinical and research-intensive—the challenges, opportunities, and joys
they face at any given time. This is especially critical given today’s erosion in societal investment in
biomedical research and education, along with the uncertainty surrounding health care delivery and
reimbursement.
From a faculty perspective, CFAS representatives have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the
activities and platforms of one of the premier medical organizations in the world. Half of these
representatives are in their early to mid-career trajectories and can benefit immensely from involvement
in broad faculty activities, refinement of biomedical policy, and leadership development. CFAS
representatives additionally have the opportunity to interact with peers from other medical school
faculties and specialties, as well as with key leaders at the AAMC, helping medical schools and teaching
hospitals develop their next generation of leaders.
Academic Societies
Through their CFAS representatives, academic societies can collaborate with other disciplines on issues
near and dear to their missions, such as teaching, research funding, and clinical reimbursement. CFAS
helps to facilitate common ground among a broad spectrum of professional academic organizations by
gathering diverse perspectives and setting aside turf issues, and speaking with the unified voice
necessary to address regulatory bodies at a national level. CFAS participation also affords societies
direct access to the resources and activities of the AAMC, providing the opportunities to collaborate and
leverage comparative benchmark data to address issues with deans and local authorities.
The AAMC
CFAS offers a faculty and society perspective on the issues the AAMC confronts on a daily basis, such
as advocating for thoughtful national policies on graduate medical education, governance and regulation
of academic medicine, and oversight of activities related to medical education, research, and care
delivery.
© 2014 AAMC. May not be reproduced without permission.
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The Council of Faculty and Academic Societies Value Proposition
The composition of representatives from both medical schools and academic societies provides a broad
and rich perspective to the discussion. Furthermore, CFAS rules ensuring that one of each pair of
representatives from schools and societies is an individual with less than 10 years of experience as a
faculty member guarantees that the collective voice of CFAS includes perspectives from early and midcareer faculty. Conversely, CFAS representatives are responsible for not only bringing faculty issues to
the table, but also for serving as a bidirectional conduit informing medical school faculty of the diverse
activities of the AAMC. This ensures that the AAMC remains vibrant and relevant for all medical
school faculty and societies.
Given its deliberate focus to include junior faculty, CFAS helps the AAMC truly represent the 150,000
voices of medical school faculty nationwide. As a representative of faculty interests, CFAS, together
with the Council of Deans (COD) and the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH),
contributes to the unique three-way communication among the major stakeholders in biomedical
education, research, and patient care.
Five Core Areas of CFAS Value
The AAMC has actively supported the evolution from the former Council of Academic Societies (CAS)
to the new Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS). In addition to the benefits afforded by
CFAS to several constituents, including CFAS representatives themselves, their faculty colleagues, their
institutions, and the member academic societies, the AAMC perceives broad areas of value from CFAS
in five essential areas.
1.
Bilateral Communication with Senior and Junior Faculty
The AAMC routinely shares insight, fosters innovation, and enables peer-to-peer networking with
many constituencies in academic medicine, including deans and other medical school
administrators, academic hospital leaders, residents, and academic societies. Regular bilateral
communication with senior faculty members, including department chairs, division leaders, and
program and center directors, has lacked over the years. Members of these groups represent a key
leadership constituency in academic medical centers, and the AAMC seeks to engage in dialog with
this group. Likewise, input from and discussion with junior faculty members, who often face career
pressures and challenges, and who represent the future leaders of academic medical centers, is
invaluable to the AAMC as it addresses faculty issues and develops membership-building activities.
2.
Development of Strategies and Policies in Education, Research, and Patient Care
As the AAMC develops strategies and policy positions important to the multiple missions of
academic medicine, input from senior and junior faculty members is invaluable. The faculty
represents the brain trust in academic medical centers, and access to this constituency can be of
great value to the AAMC as it formulates positions and develops initiatives in support of health care
delivery, medical education, and biomedical research. Development of new methods of team-based
© 2014 AAMC. May not be reproduced without permission.
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The Council of Faculty and Academic Societies Value Proposition
care delivery, team-based education, and team-based research requires extensive input from faculty
members. CFAS will help the AAMC receive this input directly.
3.
Leadership Development
AAMC has recently accelerated its commitment to leadership development with a new chief
learning officer to meet the growth needs of future leaders from the academic medicine
community. In addition to providing direct leadership training to faculty members, CFAS can
facilitate exposure of faculty members to important issues, challenges, and opportunities relevant
to academic medicine.
4.
Collaboration and Coordination with Other Major AAMC Components
Collaboration with leaders at medical schools and teaching hospitals nationwide is a critical
component to advancing the overarching goals of academic medicine. CFAS provides an important
faculty and society voice to the collective work of the AAMC’s councils, along with that of the
association’s affinity groups, representing thousands of professionals in academic medicine
nationwide.
5.
Facilitation of Input from Medical Students and Residents
Because faculty members, particularly at a junior level, work closely with medical students and
residents, CFAS can facilitate dialogue among these three groups. CFAS is additionally the
“parent” council for the Organization of Resident Representatives, another of the association’s
governing bodies. These relationships allow the AAMC to engage on a range of issues with
students and residents at all levels, whether through direct involvement with the AAMC Board of
Directors or through exposure to national events where the AAMC has sponsored trainee
involvement, such as TED Med and the recent Aspen Ideas Festival.
For More Information
To learn more about CFAS and the AAMC, please visit www.aamc.org/cfas, or contact Eric Weissman,
Senior Director, CFAS Engagement, at [email protected], or call 202-828-0044.
© 2014 AAMC. May not be reproduced without permission.
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