Jessica Byram, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology; Assistant Director, Phase 1 Curriculum of Medical Student Education, Indiana University School of Medicine
Candidate Statement: My vision for the AAA is threefold. First, I seek to leverage what I feel that the organization does exceptionally well and that is to create a community where we can highlight the incredible work our membership does around anatomy education research and innovation. We as an organization need to continue to highlight innovative work that advances the fields of anatomy and healthcare education. One way to do this is to increase the number of webinars, virtual workshops, and enduring educational materials offered to members and to utilize the Learning Hub more effectively. I envision using the Learning hub as our system for tracking live attendance and/or views of recordings to award certificate of completion for a fellowship or certificate program in Anatomy Education, which is currently being developed by the Educational Affairs Committee. Since not all members have equal access to high quality resources for professional development at their institutions, an expanded collection of educational offerings could be used meet the unique needs of the members and the certificate could be used as evidence of professional development for promotion.
Second, I envision increasing engagement of individuals in related fields, for example, physiology, pathology, and other science education fields. We can accomplish this by encouraging our colleagues within those fields to submit a symposium proposal for programming at our annual meeting and invite them to deliver webinars and virtual workshops. This will allow our membership to appreciate the broad range of applicability these fields have to anatomy education.
Finally, I as someone who has felt incredibly supported and have a great sense of belonging within the AAA community, I would like to see the AAA continue to encourage individuals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to join the organization and to provide support through their career trajectory. I believe that this goal should begin as early as possible through engagement with students as early as primary and secondary education through targeted and age-appropriate programming. A growing body of literature demonstrates that one strategy for addressing shortages of science educators and filling the demographic disparity gap between educators and students is through targeted recruitment of middle and high school students. The Learning Hub can also serve as a repository where curricular materials for K-12 anatomy outreach can be uploaded by those doing work in these areas so that they are available for use by all members.
Ph.D. Institution: PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology – Education Track, Indiana University School of Medine, 2017
Earlier Positions: Assistant Professor (2018-2024); Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2018), Indiana University School of Medicine
Teaching: Histology (graduate and medical students); Gross Anatomy (undergraduate, medical students, residents and fellows in Otolaryngology); Human Embryology (graduate students); Education Research Practicum (graduate students); Teaching and Learning in the Biomedical Sciences (graduate students)
AAA Committee/Roles: Educational Affairs Committee (2022-current, Chair 2025-current); Program Committee (2024-current); Symposium organizer (2022, 2024, 2025); Awards taskforce (2020); Anatomy Education Research Institute (AERI; speaker and mentor 2022)
Other Professional Activities: Associate Editor for Anatomical Sciences Education (2024-current).
Awards: Basmajian Award (AAA, 2025); Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching Induction (FACET; Indiana University, 2024); Trustees Teaching Award (IUSM, 2022); Scholar Educator Award (IUSM, 2021); Early Career Travel Award (AAA, 2019)
Research Interests: Professional identity formation across the medical education spectrum with a focus on longitudinal, qualitative approaches to investigate the process. Scholarship of teaching and learning in anatomy with a focus on non-traditional independent skill acquisition and the promotion of a psychologically safe learning environment.
Other Professional Memberships Currently Maintained: Central Group on Educational Affairs, American Association of Medical Colleges; Academy for Professionalism in Healthcare
Web Link: https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/22268/byram-jessica