Trainee and Young Faculty Community of Practice (TYF COP)

Chair: Anshul Bhalla (2024)
Co-Chair: Manpreet Samra (2024)
Past Chair: Samira Farouk (2024)
Board Liaison: Jon Kobashigawa (2024)
Pascale Khairallah (2024)
Emily Daniel (2024)
Shweta Anjan  (2025)
Jeanne Kamal (2025)
Laila Lakhani (2025)

Staff Liaison: Raffaella Troiano (rtroiano@myAST.org)

Mission Statement 

The Trainee and Young Faculty Community of Practice (TYF COP) has been established to provide opportunities for trainees and young faculty to actively engage with the American Society of Transplantation (AST). The TYF COP facilitates networking within the AST by connecting trainees and young faculty in the field of transplantation with peers and senior members to enable them to exchange thoughts, establish research collaborations, and participate in educational programs.

Visions

• Encourage members to share ideas through the online communities
• Increase mentorship and sponsorship of trainees and young faculty within the AST
• Sponsor educational activities to allow trainees and young faculty to enhance presentation skills, present novel research findings, and receive constructive feedback

2022-2023 Initiatives

Engage the community through work on meaningful initiatives that are addressed by different workgroups (outside of the executive committee).

• COP Hub posts to highlight COP and social media initiatives and member spotlights and to share ongoing projects.
• Work with organ-specific COPs to identify workgroups or white papers in need of early faculty involvement.
• Use Hub to connect members with open opportunities.

Submit at least one idea for an educational opportunity (either through an ATC program proposal or another mechanism).

• Propose High Impact AJT papers session and mentor-mentee session for ATC.
• Consider topic submission for T3 webinars.

Create content that serves the community and the AST at large, such as guidelines, white papers, journal clubs, etc.

• Update the Comprehensive Trainee Curriculum.
• Generate free, open access medical education (FOAMed) content via Twitter and in collaboration with other social media platforms (e.g., Renal Fellow Network, Liver Fellow Network).
• Identify and share with COP early faculty opportunities across transplant (e.g., AJT editorial fellowship) and connect members to those who have participated in these opportunities.

Ensure COP mission statement and strategic plan are aligned to AST strategic vision and demonstrate progress on the strategic plan in subsequent years.

• Annual review and update of TYF COP mission statement and strategic plan as needed.

Assess member educational needs with input from the education committee.

• Survey COP via Hub to understand what the educational needs are.
• Increase member engagement and involvement in committees (education, #ASTTYF Twitter Chat, mentorship).
• Annual update of the TYF COP online library.
• Share available resources via regular Hub posts, TYF COP Twitter account, and with other social media resources (i.e., Liver Fellow Network, Renal Fellow Network).

Nominate members for the AST Board and other leadership positions within AST.

• Nominate early career members in leadership positions within the AST and encourage members to apply for early career positions in other COPs.
• Identify opportunities and nominate TYF COP members for AST committees (e.g., Planning Committee, Fellows Symposium Committee).

Provide opportunities for the membership to network/collaborate throughout the year (outside of ATC).

• Encourage TYF COP networking in other organ-specific conferences.
• Continue engagement via TYF COP Twitter account.
• Plan #ASTTYF Twitter chats with other COPs.

Encourage members to suggest initiatives and share ideas through the online communities.

• Increase TYF COP Twitter account activity and engagement.
• Continue #ASTTYF Twitter discussion every 2-3 months

Actively sustain COP-to-AST membership conversion and growth of the COP and AST.

• Educate trainees about the COP and AST by engaging program directors across specialties in training programs.
• Advocate for reduced/free membership fees for trainees.
• Continue “Welcome” emails to all new TYF COP members (will update welcome letter to include committees available to join to increase member engagement).

Provide regular updates to the COP membership (minimum of once per quarter) and to the Board.

• Chair will continue to provide regular updates to the Board