Leading from the Middle

IntroductionToday my guest is Nina Taylor, Vice President of Learning and Education at American Society for Radiation Oncology. I first met Nina Taylor in 2018 at an Alliance Quality and Innovation Summit in Park City, Utah.  She and Andrew Chacko, who was a guest in episode 2 of Write Medicine, were presenters in a session on designing innovative education programs.  Nina talks about her work in continuing education and how she uses active listening, social learning, and a sense of fun to create immersive and accessible education for healthcare clinicians.Ley Take Aways* How Nina got started in CME.* What really goes behind the scenes in building out engaging adult learning materials.* Nina challenges you to think about your leadership ethos. * Nina shares what her experience was like working in several different medical societies and some of the key takeaways she’s learned over the years. * When you’re in an association or a society, you’re seen as a peer and medical faculty are happy to help you because everyone is fighting for the same team.* How does the American Society for Radiation Oncology approach clinician education? * Nina shares some of the challenges she faced trying to incorporate virtual technology into her department. * What does a dynamic and immersive educational experience look like? Nina shares some examples. * Covid is hard for everyone right now. Humans are social creatures and we need connection. * Nina believes every meeting should have a virtual component. It just opens the doors to so many people who weren’t able to come before due to financial or geographical restraints. * Virtual is here to stay! Education in any form is always a positive. * What should practitioners be thinking about when it comes to the future of the CME field? * We really have to practice what we preach. Sometimes our learning materials are so dry and dull! * What is the Psychiatric Innovation Lab all about? * What’s Nina looking forward to in 2021? SummaryNina's experience at an HBCU gave her direct exposure to a dynamic learning environment filled with opportunities to teach and facilitate that she has been able to pull into her professional life and use to support her work with faculty. And her leadership style of leading from the middle is invested in uplifting team members, elevating their skills, and fostering an ecosystem of sharing information and a climate in which team members take ownership of their own work, and not the work that someone else has determined for them. The parallel here for me is adult learning. How many programs in CME/CPD really allow learners to take ownership of their own learning? And to what extent does the shift to a virtual learning open a door to that kind of experience?  Nina is clear that it is possible to craft dynamic, immersive, experiences that offer room for learners to curate their own learning in a virtual environment that has a clear esthetic design, rapid interactive activities, and networking opportunities.  She's also clear thatSupport the show📍Grab the WriteCME Roadmap⭐ Review the podcast🗞️ Biweekly Newsletter with tips and resources to enrich your CME content niche➡️ Join WriteCME Pro for ongoing professional development 🌐 Podcast website🎙️ Share the podcast Mentioned in this episode:Why Retreats Work: Disconnection, Body Wisdom, and the Science of Letting GoRewrite Your Power Retreat 2026This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp