About the CFD

The Centre for Faculty Development (CFD) was founded in 2002 as a partnership between St. Michael's Hospital (now known as Unity Health Toronto) and the University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine. It is positioned as an Extra-Departmental Unit within UofT.

At the CFD we are committed to supporting health professionals in their multiple education roles and activities – including teaching, academic leadership, scholarship and advocacy. We offer flexible and adaptable programming that is responsive to emerging needs, facilitates communities and networking, and supports capacity building across the system.

More specifically our offerings include longitudinal programs, individual workshops, curated lists of resources, and faculty development consultations with local, national and international partners.

We view faculty development as education knowledge mobilization, enabling bidrectional knowledge sharing between education scholarship practices and basic education research.

Vision, Mission and Values

Vision- Advancing faculty development across the health sciences to promote academic excellence

Mission- To enhance teaching, learning and leadership in the academic health sciences system through faculty development.

Values- As leaders who are committed to excellence and the well being of faculty, students and their communities, the CFD embraces the following core values:

• Collaboration – Valuing and recognizing the wealth of knowledge and expertise of colleagues and partner institutions.
• Critical inquiry and scholarship- Valuing ongoing questioning of what is done and striving to be scholarly in all programs and projects.
• Innovation and creativity- Valuing creative thinking and calculated risk taking in creativity, delivery, and evaluation.
• Adaptability and responsiveness- Valuing flexibility in addressing the needs of an ever growing, diverse audience.
• Social accountability- Valuing the support the CFD provides to the health care system and the communities it serves.

Organizational Structure

Committees

The CFD has 10-15 program or project committees active any given time. Our core committees are: Governance Committee and Executive Council.

Governance Committee

This committee is advisory to the CFD Director and the CFD Executive Council. The committee has the responsibility for oversight of the unit’s accountability and monitoring the quality of the educational and research activities of the Centre.

This is accomplished by:

• ensuring leaders in professional practice, research and education advise on and commit to the success of the centre’s strategy and operations
• facilitating links to major educational organizations that can help advance the CFD’s mission
• advising on the identification of potential funding sources and opportunities
• providing feedback and approval of strategic plans
• reviewing the annual budget, annual reports and externals review documents
• ensuring that the Centre functions in a manner consistent with the mission, values and ethics of the Hospital and the University

Executive Council

The Executive Council is responsible for overseeing matters of day-to-day success of the CFD.

This is accomplished by:

• advising on policies, practices, goals and objectives
• informing the CFD of pertinent external initiatives and developments
• assisting in the establishment and monitoring strategic plan implementation
• advising on strategic relationships with the university and hospitals, our partners in professional education, other hospitals and community health providers

Communications

Each year, the CFD produces program brochures and reports to apprize learners, teachers and colleagues of new projects, milestones and outcomes. Please feel free to review, circulate and share any of these documents.