2027 Faculty and Staff Vitality Conference
Thriving Together: Partnership, Purpose, and Excellence

Call for Proposals!

Wednesday, July 21 - Friday, July 23, 2027
Hyatt Regency
Salt Lake City, Utah

Submission Deadline: October 9, 2026, 11:59 PM PT

2027 Call for Proposals Submission Guide

The AAMC Faculty and Staff Vitality Group invites proposals for the 2027 Faculty and Staff Vitality Conference, taking place July 21–23, 2027, at the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Proposals must be submitted online by 11:59 PM PT on October 9, 2026. Late submissions will not be accepted. Before beginning a proposal, submitters are encouraged to review the Submission Guide carefully for submission requirements, format descriptions, review criteria, and tips for developing a strong proposal.

Conference Content

This conference will spotlight scholarship, promising practices, innovative programs, and institutional strategies that advance faculty and staff vitality across academic medicine. It will provide a shared space to exchange ideas, build connections, and strengthen the professional experiences of faculty, professional staff, and the offices that support them. Attendees will include professionals who support faculty and staff through faculty affairs and faculty development, resilience and well-being, human resources, community engagement and collaboration, workforce impact in medicine and science initiatives, and professional staff leadership and development.

Your expertise, creativity, and perspective will help shape a dynamic conference experience. Submitters may choose from the following proposal formats:

1. Workshops: Interactive sessions designed to build practical skills, behaviors, and capabilities through active discussion, problem-solving, and hands-on application.

2. Podium Presentations: Oral presentations designed to share innovative programs, institutional initiatives, research, and promising practices advancing faculty and staff vitality.

3. Posters: Visual displays and teaser presentations highlighting emerging research, evidence-informed practices, quality improvement initiatives, and innovative institutional policies. 

Planning and Designing

Strong proposals turn promising ideas into clear, engaging conference experiences. As you prepare your submission, focus on how attendees will participate, what they will take away, and how they may apply the learning in their own settings.

Here are some important recommendations:

1. Design interactive sessions that invite active participation and support meaningful exchange.
2. Use formats such as hands-on workshops, demonstrations, simulations, small-group discussions, or interactive panels rather than lecture-only presentations.
3. Incorporate activities such as case studies, reflection prompts, problem-solving exercises, and facilitated discussions to engage participants throughout the session.
4. Provide practical strategies, tools, frameworks, and examples that participants can adapt to their own roles, offices, and institutions.
5. Balance interactive components with substantive content to ensure participants leave with new evidence-based tools, concepts, and actionable insights.
6. Share supporting resources that reinforce learning and help participants apply key takeaways in their work.

NOTE: Presenters are responsible for uploading electronic materials to the conference website or mobile app and for printing and distributing any physical materials used during the session.

Explore videos and guides and examine tips and tools for planning, designing, developing, and delivering an effective conference session. Submitters are strongly encouraged to use the Submission Guide before logging in to submit a proposal.

Suggested Topics of Interest

The Faculty and Staff Vitality Program Planning Committee has identified topics of interest related to the conference theme—Thriving Together: Partnership, Purpose, and Excellence.

The topics below are only possible suggestions that reflect the breadth of faculty and staff vitality and the six Faculty and Staff Vitality Communities of Practice. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. Submitters should select the Community(ies) of Practice that best align with their proposal. Proposals that address challenges or opportunities across multiple Communities of Practice are highly encouraged.

Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development (FAFD)

• Faculty and professional staff career pathways across all career stages
• Appointments, evaluation, promotion, tenure, and post-tenure review
• Promotion readiness, academic track redesign, and faculty portfolio development
• Faculty CV review, documentation, and promotion metrics
• Teaching excellence and educational leadership
• Faculty onboarding and transition programs
• Mentoring, sponsorship, coaching, and peer development
• Leadership development and succession planning
• Faculty development program design, assessment, scholarship, and demonstrating impact
• Recognition, workload, and valuing scholarship, leadership, and service
• Artificial intelligence, generative AI, and emerging technologies that support teaching, faculty development, scholarship, and academic administration

Workforce Impact in Medicine and Science (WIMS)

• Recruitment, promotion, retention, compensation, and leadership advancement
• Workplace experiences across diverse populations, including women and women of color in medicine and science
• Sexual and gender harassment, Title IX, regulatory issues, and institutional accountability
• Caregiving, reproductive health, lactation policies, and career-life integration
• Addressing invisible work, non-promotable tasks, service burden, and workload distribution
• Workforce trends affecting women and the academic medicine workforce
• Advocacy, coalition-building, and institutional change
• Evolution of offices, titles, and organizational structures supporting women and gender-related initiatives
• Innovative organizational practices, technology, and data that improve workforce policies, advancement, and institutional accountability

Community, Engagement, and Collaboration (CEC)

• Building collaboration across departments, disciplines, and institutions
• Faculty and staff engagement strategies
• Community-building and stakeholder engagement
• Institutional partnerships and shared accountability
• Faculty experience surveys, engagement analytics, and climate assessment
• Communication strategies that strengthen trust and engagement
• Shared governance and feedback mechanisms
• Change management during restructuring and organizational transformation
• Civil discourse, organizational culture, and healthy workplaces
• Innovative models, digital tools, and technologies that strengthen collaboration, engagement, and community-building

Professional Staff (PS)

• Professional staff career pathways and advancement
• Leadership development for professional staff
• Professional identity and role clarity
• Mentoring, sponsorship, and peer networks
• Professional staff scholarship and program evaluation
• Organizational influence, communication, and political savvy
• Staff engagement, retention, and sustainable careers
• Recognition and visibility of professional staff contributions
• Technology, process improvement, and innovative approaches that enhance professional staff effectiveness and career development

Human Resources (HR) and Workforce Strategy

• Recruitment, onboarding, retention, and workforce planning
• Talent management and succession planning
• Search committee practices and recruitment innovations
• Performance evaluation and professional growth
• Organizational development and change management
• Compensation, pay transparency, recognition, and total rewards
• Workforce analytics, dashboards, and data-informed decision-making
• Flexible work, accommodations, leave, caregiving, and workplace policies
• Bullying, hostile workplaces, harassment, remediation, and psychological safety
• HR partnerships with faculty affairs, institutional leaders, and well-being teams
• Faculty affairs operational excellence, workflow redesign, and shared service models
• Artificial intelligence, automation, business intelligence, and technology-enabled approaches to workforce strategy and human resources

Resilience and Well-Being (RW)

• Organizational approaches to burnout prevention and well-being
• Professional fulfillment and sustainable careers
• Workplace climate and psychological safety
• Work-life integration across career stages
• Recognition, workload, and staffing practices that influence well-being
• Supporting clinician educators, clinician scientists, faculty, and professional staff
• Resilience, peer support, restoration, and recovery
• Measuring well-being and translating findings into institutional action
• Leadership accountability for healthy workplace cultures
• Innovative programs, technologies, and data-driven strategies that promote well-being, resilience, and sustainable workplaces

Review Criteria

All submissions will be evaluated on the following elements:

• Relevance to Faculty and/or Staff Vitality
• Significance and Need
• Approach and Design
• Evidence, Outcomes, or Lessons Learned
• Innovation and Contribution to the Field
• Impact and Transferability
• Collaboration
• Clarity and Overall Quality

For more details regarding the review criteria, please visit the Submission Guide.

Submission Deadline: October 9, 2026, 11:59 PM (PST)
Late submissions will not be accepted.

Notification Date: Novemeber 2026

Questions?

For more information please contact: facultystaffvitality@aamc.org