Medical Mentor Coaching Is Now the Academic Medicine Strategy Group

Academic medicine has been my professional home for more than 25 years.

I did not drift into it. I chose it.

Like many of us, the physicians I admired most in medical school and residency were academic physicians. They were teaching. Publishing. Leading. Building programs. Advancing discovery.

For many of us, that was the goal: to contribute beyond the clinic, to train the next generation, to shape the field.

I still believe deeply in that model.

What I do not believe in is losing talented physicians because they were never given the structure to succeed inside it.

If someone leaves academic medicine because it is not the right fit, that is appropriate.

If someone leaves because expectations were unclear, mentorship was inconsistent, productivity was poorly designed, or identity transitions were unsupported, that is preventable.

Where This Started

Early in my own career, I worked hard. I cared deeply. I said yes to almost everything.

What I did not have at the beginning was infrastructure. Clear promotion mapping. Explicit productivity strategy. Real time protection. Identity guidance as my role evolved.

I eventually built those systems. But it should not take years of trial and exhaustion to learn how to function in a system you trained your entire life to join.

Over time, one pattern became impossible to ignore. The same strain kept showing up across departments: smart, committed faculty overwhelmed not by lack of effort, but by lack of structure.

This was not about individual weakness. It was about design.

That realization is why the name needed to change.

The Name Change

Over the next month, Medical Mentor Coaching will transition to the Academic Medicine Strategy Group. As the update rolls out, you may see both names appearing across emails, materials, and the website. 

Not because the mission has changed, but because the scope of the work has expanded.

We are now a faculty development company dedicated to strengthening academic medicine, using education, coaching, and organizational strategy to build systems that support performance and retention. That work now extends to departments, division chiefs, and chairs, not just individual faculty. The infrastructure work happens at every level.

Coaching remains part of what we do. But coaching inside a broken system only goes so far. When you improve the system, everyone benefits.

What Has Not Changed

The commitment to academic medicine has not changed.

The belief that faculty deserve clarity and structure has not changed.

The focus on productivity that returns measurable time has not changed.

The emphasis on sustainable careers rather than heroic overwork has not changed.

The difference is scale. The name now reflects the breadth of the work already being done.

Why This Matters

Academic medicine is not losing people because they lack commitment. It struggles when infrastructure is missing.

The recurring strain is usually linked to unclear promotion pathways, productivity systems that reward volume over focus, poorly designed onboarding for early-career faculty, leadership roles without leadership training, and culture forming by accident rather than intention.

The Academic Medicine Strategy Group exists to address those gaps directly.

If your department has strong people and persistent strain, it is rarely about effort. It is usually structure that has not been designed intentionally.

Naming that mismatch is the first step. Building the infrastructure to fix it is the work.

P.S. If your department has strong faculty and persistent strain, the FERI program is where we start. medicalmentorcoaching.com/feri