Season 5, Episode 9: Celebrating 30 Years of Leadership and Learning in Health Professions with Elizabeth Armstrong

This final episode of the Harvard Macy Institute podcast features Liz Armstrong, founding director of the Harvard Macy Institute. Liz is inspiration, mentor and friend to many in the HMI community and beyond. Dr. Armstrong is a professor in Pediatrics, PT, at Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, and has held positions at Harvard Medical School since 1984, including director of Curriculum 1988-1992, director of medical education 1992-2001 and director of education programs at Harvard Medical International from 2001-2009. In 1994 with funding from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, she created and directed the Harvard Macy Institute through May 2023. She received an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Lund Medical Faculty in recognition of her international contributions to medical education and in 2016 received the Award for Excellence in Medical Education formerly named the Abraham Flexner Award, the highest annual award given by the American Association of Medical Colleges.

In this episode we do a deep dive into Liz’s unique contributions to HMI and to the global health professions educational community. We explore her personal style, her deep professional expertise in education, and her ‘innovators DNA.’ Rich with stories and anecdotes, our conversation is helpful to understand the achievement of building and sustaining the Harvard Macy Institute, as well as how to be brave and adventurous with our work. Liz offers her perspective on the future of medical education, emphasizing the need for ongoing innovation and collaboration. This episode is a tribute to her remarkable contributions and a call to action for the work still to be done in health professions education.

Your host for this episode is Victoria Brazil (Educators, ’05, Leaders ’07, Assessment ‘10). Victoria is a professor of emergency medicine at Bond University Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine. She hosts the HMI podcast and is co-producer of Simulcast-a podcast about health care simulation.