Education Day is a celebration of our health professions educators, bringing together a diverse community of interprofessional educators and education researchers to celebrate outstanding achievements in teaching.

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TEACH Education Day 2026

Annual Richard C. Vari, PhD Endowed Lecture

Optimizing the Learning Environment: The Imperative for Educators to Engage Minds and Open Hearts

This event will take place on October 14, 2026, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.
Additional details to come.

Featuring

Aviad Haramati, PhD
Professor of Integrative Physiology
Director, Center for Innovation and Leadership in Education (CENTILE)
Georgetown University Medical Center
Washington, DC

Description:

In this presentation, Dr. Haramati will focus on the learning environment and review several key elements that impact on students and faculty in the health professions. Aspects of the learning environment include personal, social, curricular and other institutional components.  The important role of faculty in helping learners form their professional identity will be discussed, and the imperative to educate minds, but also to open hearts, will be emphasized. The presentation will also highlight interventions that have been implemented to help learners enhance their self-awareness, foster empathy and build resilience, and the critical role that educators in the health professions can play.

Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the components of the learning environment (personal, social, curricular, physical/virtual) that contribute to adverse student stress and discuss strategies of how to improve those aspects of the learning environment
  • Recognize the current state of faculty welfare and identify some of the challenges that interfere with the ability of faculty to flourish
  • Discuss the critical role that educators in the health professions can play in addressing both cognitive and emotional development of students and how they can model approaches that will benefit students, faculty and the institution

Invitees

All interested Carilion Clinic, VTC, and RUC physicians, faculty, and other health professions educators.

*Carilion Clinic’s CME Program is accredited by the Southern States CME Collaborative (SSCC) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Carilion Clinic’s CME Program designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Awards and Poster Presentations for TEACH Education Day 2026

Call for Poster Abstracts

The Call for Poster Abstracts for TEACH Education Day will be announced soon.

Poster abstracts should reflect the TEACH mission to advance educational excellence and innovation, be of peer-review quality, and follow the formatting requirements listed in the accordion below.

One poster abstract will be selected for a 15-minute podium presentation during the Posters, Recognition, and Awards Reception.

All abstract submissions should be 400 words or less and should be structured using the following headings:

  • Title
  • Authors (Names & Departments) - One or more authors must be present during the Education Day poster viewing session to discuss their work
  • Background
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Conclusion
  • References (optional, not included in the word count)

  • One author for each poster abstract must be available to facilitate discussion and/or answer questions regarding their work during the poster session.
  • All submissions must be submitted using the online submission form.
  • All are invited to submit works in progress or completed education research or innovations for the event.
  • Please note that case studies and abstracts not focused on education research will not be considered for acceptance.

  • All education research submissions will be evaluated for completeness and their strength of contribution to health professions education.

If you would like help or guidance or have questions on the development or submission of your abstract, please reach out to a member of the TEACH team or email TEACH@carilionclinic.org. Previously submitted posters are visible on our website on the 2024 TEACH Education Day page.