LINC Faculty & Staff Development Initiative

The LINC Faculty & Staff Development Initiative resides within the LINC Faculty Council. This working group is designed to empower faculty and staff across UT Health San Antonio to create innovative and sustainable IPE activities. An important component of this Initiative includes transforming faculty/staff efforts into scholarly dissemination products and strong intramural and extramural IPE grant proposals. Three signature programs are housed within this Initiative: the LINC Faculty & Staff Development Program, the LINC Seed Grant Program, and the LINC Writers’ Workshop.

Annually, the leader of the LINC Faculty & Staff Development Initiative and the LINC Director collaborate to develop charges to guide Initiative efforts and maximize contributions to the QEP. Charges for fiscal year 2023 are listed below, as well as a link to the group’s contributions to collaborative scholarship and a roster of members.

Fiscal Year 2023 Charges

Build Initiative team with faculty and/or staff representatives from all 5 schools.

Transform the annual fall offering of the LINC Faculty & Staff Development Program into a 2-part series for beginners (fall) and intermediate/advanced participants (spring).

Align LINC Seed Grant funding goals with priorities described in the LINC Academic Affairs Council’s 2022 annual workplan & priorities.

Successfully administer the 2023 LINC Seed Grant Program and increase submitted proposals by 10%.

Successfully administer the 2023 LINC Writers’ Workshop and increase participation by 10%

Submit one manuscript describing outcomes from Initiative programming for publication to a peer-reviewed journal.

Explore extramural funding opportunities to support Initiative programming.

Contributions to Collaborative Scholarship

Click here to view a summary of scholarly dissemination products from the LINC Faculty & Staff Development Initiative.

Rekha KarRekha Kar, Ph.D.
Leader, LINC Faculty & Staff Development Initiative
Associate Professor/Clinical, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
karr@uthscsa.edu

Rekha Kar, Ph,D. is an Associate Professor/Clinical in the department of Cell Systems and Anatomy at UT Health San Antonio. Her contributions to the educational enterprise of the UT Health San Antonio have included teaching gross human anatomy to students in different programs (medical, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant and graduate school) as a lecturer and course director, as well as serving as a mentor and advisor to students in the anatomical sciences Master’s degree program of Cell System and Anatomy (CSA). She received several recognitions for teaching and scholarship including the Excellence in Health Professional Student Education Award: Department of Cell Systems & Anatomy, UT Health San Antonio Presidential award for Emerging excellence in Teaching, LSOM Academy of Educational Scholars (AES) 2022 STAR Educator award. She was selected as a fellow of the LSOM AES in 2021 and was inducted as a member of AES in 2022. Her educational research projects are highly collaborative, and they draw faculty from several programs of our institution. One major project, funded by the Linking Interprofessional Networks for Collaboration (LINC) initiative of our institution, is to promote interprofessional education (IPE) core competencies. A second area of focus is the development of innovative anatomical teaching tools designed around advanced technologies including 3D printing and the Anatomage virtual dissection table. She serves in several departmental, institutional committees and in committees of national organizations including the Ambassador Committee of the American Association for Anatomy and the Career Development Committee of the American Association of Clinical Anatomist (AACA).

Roland PaquetteRoland Paquette, M.P.A.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies
School of Health Professions
paquetter@uthscsa.edu

Roland Paquette, M.P.A.S., PA-C, is a 2012 graduate of the UT Health San Antonio Physician Assistant (PA) program. After graduation, he worked clinically in emergency medicine, and building off his previous military experience, he developed and delivered interprofessional prehospital medical training across the U.S. and South America. Mr. Paquette joined the Department of PA Studies faculty at UT Health San Antonio as an Assistant Professor in 2017. In his faculty role, he teaches within multiple schools and departments at UT Health San Antonio. He also assisted in implementing their department’s first EPAs and Milestones to track student trajectory toward competence. Mr. Paquette maintains a clinical cross-appointment in the Department of Emergency Medicine and is active on multiple local, national, and international committees. He is leading the effort to develop an interprofessional Fellowship in Special Operations Medicine and is pursuing research on how interprofessional teams can impact human performance after injury.

Laura SiskLaura Sisk D.N.P., RN
Assistant Professor/Clinical
School of Nursing
siskl@uthscsa.edu

Laura Sisk D.N.P., RN is an Assistant Professor/Clinical in the School of Nursing, Office of Faculty Excellence. Her contributions to the educational mission at UT Health San Antonio include her expertise in clinical teaching for the maternal/child population. She teaches in Caring for the Childbearing Family, Population Health, and in Family Nursing Care. She is the coordinator for the Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) for Mother/Baby, Woman’s Health, and Neonatal Intensive Care Units. She has been instrumental in the ongoing success of this clinical model. She serves as the course coordinator in several courses, as well as serving as a mentor and advisor to students in the undergraduate nursing program. She is actively engaged in community health and serves as a faculty mentor on multiple community service-learning projects, most of which focus on maternal and child health. She serves on the Community Service Advisory Board and assists as a grant reviewer for Interprofessional Community Service-Learning grants. She has received several recognitions for her contribution to nursing in the community, including outstanding community service award, and the UT Nurse Imagemaker award. She was also the recipient of The Excellence in Compliance Award. In addition to her educational and community service-learning projects, she has expertise in interprofessional simulations and caring for families with substance abuse disorders. She is highly collaborative and works with faculty from several programs of our institution. Projects include interprofessional health promotion education, perinatal loss, and simulation. She serves in several departmental committees, such as the Committee on Inter Professional Education, and the Committee on Faculty and Student Matters. Additionally, she is active on committees at the institutional level, elected as a Senator on Faculty Senate and on committees of national organizations, including the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), International Association of Human Caring, and Sigma Theta Tau. She has received educational grants and has given regional and national presentations. She is highly committed to interprofessional education and its ability to positively impact patient outcomes.

Emily S. Wang, MDEmily S. Wang, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Associate Program Director – Internal Medicine Residency
Long School of Medicine
wange@uthscsa.edu

Emily S. Wang, M.D. is an associate professor at UT Health San Antonio LSOM, Department of Medicine and serves as an Associate Program Director for the UT Health internal medicine residency with over 100 residents. Her clinical experiences include inpatient internal medicine as a hospitalist in private and academic practice and outpatient primary care. Her areas of interest are peri-operative medicine, consultative medicine and transitions of care and patient flow into the hospital. She has received medical educational grants, given regional and national presentations and workshops and has multiple publications in these areas. She is a clinician educator and member of the UTHSA LSOM Academy of Educational Scholars and serves on institutional and national committees for medical education, scholarship and research.

School of Dentistry Representative