The 2025 Summer Conference hosted by the Teaching Academy of the Consortium of West Region Colleges of Veterinary Medicine is packed with exceptional opportunities and experiences. Outlined below are the details and the conference schedule.
To download a digital copy of the conference program, click here!
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Keynote Workshops
Empowering Educators to Navigate Challenges and Foster Success!
Speakers: Katherine Fogelberg, DVM, PhD, and Lauren S. Grider, DVM, MA, ALC, NCC, CCFP
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Tuesday, June 24th 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST |
Encouraging agility and adaptability in veterinary medical education Encourages attendees to reflect upon the importance of evolving veterinary education to keep up with transformative technologies that influence both the training of veterinarians and the practice of veterinary medicine in all its forms, challenging veterinary educators to think creatively and work collectively toward a more agile and accessible future. |
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Tuesday, June 24th Workshop 1:00 – 3:00 PM PST |
Why active learning and how to incorporate it into your teaching Introduces research that supports active learning as a teaching approach, describes a variety of active learning techniques, and provides an opportunity for participants to engage in several active learning activities to help each other figure out ways to incorporate such techniques into their own teaching. |
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Thursday, June 26th Workshop 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST |
Qualitative Research in Veterinary Education Compares and contrasts qualitative and quantitative research methods, summarizes the value of adding qualitative research to veterinary education, provides an overview of qualitative research approaches, and engages participants in the process of creating a qualitative research process through guided small group work. |
 Wednesday, June 25th 10:00 – 11:00 AM PST |
The Perfectionism Problem Upon completion of this 50-minute interactive lecture, participants will be able to:
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Workshop: Thursday, June 26th 8:30 – 9:30 AM (PST) |
Building Better Boundaries: An (Optionally) Interactive Session Upon completion of this 50-minute interactive lecture, participants will be able to:
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RTA Initiatives – Reports
Session Chair – Maria Fahie (WU)
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8:45 – 9:30 AM PST |
Each major RTA Initiative and Working Group, along with the Membership Committee, will provide a 15-minute update on their progress and activities. The Initiatives include Faculty Development, External Peer Review of Teaching, and Quantification of Teaching Effort and Effectiveness. Updates will also be shared by the Sharing High-Quality Educational Materials Working Group and the Community Engagement Working Group. |
Tuesday, June 24th RTA Initiative Workshops
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EPRT – Wednesday, June 25th 1:00 – 2:15 PM PST |
Workshop – RTA External Peer Review of Teaching Session Chairs – Maria Fahie (WU) Description: Learning Outcome: Educators will leave the workshop with an enriched understanding of components of a Teaching Philosophy Workshop Objectives: By the end of the workshop, participants will:
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Wednesday, June 25th 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST |
Workshop – TBA Session Chairs – Malika Kachani (WU) & Alberta Arviso (UA) Description: TBA |
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Wednesday, June 25th 3:00 – 4:00 PM PST |
Workshop – Sharing High-Quality Educational Materials Sharing High-Quality Educational Materials: Building Collective Impact Across Institutions Facilitator – Holly Bender (UA) & Jonathan Cox (UA) Description: Discover how the RTA Sharing Working Group is transforming cross-institutional collaboration through the exchange of high-quality instructional materials. This session will include a brief update on the group’s progress, followed by powerful user stories from members whose participation has directly supported their professional advancement. Attendees will hear diverse perspectives from Sharing Group Members on the value of sharing and be invited to contribute their own vision for how this initiative can enhance their teaching, scholarship, and career development. |
 Wednesday, June 25th 4:45 – 5:45 PM PST |
Workshop – Clinical Teaching Session Chairs – Description: TBA |
Thursday, June 26th 1:00 – 2:00 PM PST |
Workshop – Student Assessment What types of assessment are being used in Veterinary Medicine Education and How Do We Feel About It? Session Co-Chairs – Zachary Boeder (UA) & Christopher Hauser (UA) Description: Welcome to the RTA Student Assessment Subcommittee! Our work lately has revolved around constructing and sending out a survey to all RTA member institutions to gather information about what types of assessments are being used at our institutions and how educators feel about their use of assessment. Our goals in this workshop are to share any results we have from this survey and engage in an activity with you based on the survey results to help us determine where we as a subcommittee should prioritize our efforts going forward. We will use the results of the survey, as well as the ideas we generate during this workshop, to dictate what areas of assessment we will focus on next. |
Teaching Innovations
Session Co-Chairs: Carolina Mehaffey, Maria Fahie, Sarah Guess, Ashley McGrew
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Wednesday, June 25th Thursday, June 26th |
Teaching Innovations are 10-minute informal, interactive sessions presenting ideas for innovation and best practices in veterinary medical and biomedical teaching. These sessions are ideal for offering successful solutions to challenges teachers face, as well as approaches that were not as successful since these are wonderful learning opportunities. These sessions could include tips and tricks, clinical teaching strategies and ideas, as well as other topics such as technology and meeting the challenges of virtual teaching. Presentations under this heading should NOT reflect active scholarship/education research. Join us at the Teaching Innovations sessions! |
Tuesday, June 24th Scholarship/Educational Research Podium and Poster Sessions
Session Co-Chairs Scholarship: Ashley McGrew, Tony Marino, Jillian Haines, Karen Boudreaux, Tiana Magee, Rachel Halsey
Session Co-Chairs Poster: Jillian Haines
 Tuesday, June 24th & Wednesday, June 25th |
Scholarship/Educational Research Podium: Teaching Scholarship/Educational Research are 15-minute podium sessions designed to present educational research to peers, facilitating our mission, and fostering potential collaborative research interests. Priority is given to completed studies that have not been previously published and/or presented elsewhere, preferably including objective measures, statistical analysis, and/or qualitative analysis. Proposals will be reviewed and scored using a rubric with feedback supplied and returned to all submissions. This is a great opportunity to foster collaborative research interests as you share your work! We can’t wait to learn about what you’re trying! |
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4:30 – 5:30 PM |
Poster Session: The primary goal of the poster session is to give as many members as possible the chance to present their work while also preserving time for scientific discussion during abstract presentations. A decision on which abstracts will be presented in traditional podium style and which will be assigned to the poster session will be made following abstract evaluation. Participants selected for a poster presentation will be expected to present a podium talk up to two minutes long. This is intended as an opportunity to promote and enhance the visibility of participants’ work. Summaries may choose to utilize PowerPoint slides (no more than two total) that illustrate key elements of the poster. Poster Sessions are informal times where conference participants peruse posters on a variety of topics by their colleagues. Posters can focus on teaching techniques, budding or developed educational research, and other topics. All submissions will be reviewed using a rubric. |
Tuesday, June 24th
Monday, June 23rd