Teach for UCSF Certificates
What it is: The Teach for UCSF Certificate Program offers faculty the opportunity to gain in-depth understanding and essential skills as health professional educators and build a network with other educators through in-person sessions. The program is designed based on best practices from the education literature, and integrates anti-racist and anti-oppressive principles.
Who it is for: The Certificate Program primarily targets UCSF faculty, including volunteer clinical professors, for who education is a major part of their career. Select certificates are open to staff and learners as indicated below.
What to expect: Certificates are offered as day-long sessions and most certificates consist of 2-3 parts, and include an experiential activity to apply learned skills at certificate completion. Details for each certificate can be found below. Participants should aim to complete all required parts for a certificate within the course of 2 years. CME credit is available.
How to enroll: Each certificate overview below includes an enrollment link. A UCSF MyAccess account is required. If you don’t have a MyAccess account but teach or supervise UCSF learners, check with the school or program you teach for whether you qualify to become a Volunteer Clinical Professor. Get started by clicking on the certificates you are interested in!
Educator Essentials
The Educator Essentials Certificate focuses on essential knowledge and skills that all educators need, and is based on published milestones for educators. Learning objectives incorporate competencies in anti-oppressive and anti-racist education practice. This certificate lays the foundation for participation in the other certificates and prepares educators for an academic career focused on education. Certificate completion requires participation in 2 full day in-person sessions (Part 1 and Part 2, to be taken in order), as well as an experiential activity1 of your choosing (approximate time commitment 2 hours).
Target Audience: This certificate targets faculty from all UCSF schools including Volunteer Clinical Professors, but is open to staff and senior fellows
Topics addressed in this certificate:
- Learning Environments
- Foundations of Curriculum Development
- Education Strategies
- Educator Identity Formation & Professional Development
- Supporting Learners
- Assessment Basics
- Principles of Growth Mindset & Feedback
- Educator Well-Being
- Starting an Educator Portfolio
1 Examples of experiential learning activities include a peer teaching observation, crafting learning objectives for a curriculum, updating your CV with an educators portfolio, etc.
Upcoming Dates
- Nov 15, 2024 - Part 2
(Fresno) - Feb 24, 2025 - Part 1
- Apr 24, 2025 - Part 1
- Apr 25, 2025 - Part 2
- Jun 6, 2025 - Part 2
Clinical Teaching
The Clinical Teaching Certificate targets faculty who teach and supervise learners in clinical settings, and who want to gain a deeper understanding of the different educational strategies that promote learning in such settings as well as hone their skills in teaching, supervising and supporting learners in clinical learning environments. This certificate builds on the curriculum of the Educators Essentials Certificate, and prior participation in Educators Essentials or other foundational workshops about learning environment and feedback are strongly recommended to get the most out of this Certificate. Certificate completion requires participation in 2 full day in-person sessions (part 1 and part 2, to be taken in order), as well as an experiential activity of your choosing (approximate time commitment 2 hours).
Target Audience: This certificate is only open to faculty from UCSF schools including Volunteer Clinical Professors.
Topics addressed in this certificate:
- Clinical Learning Environments
- Core Clinical Teaching Tools and Skills
- Teaching Clinical Reasoning
- Assessment and Feedback in the Clinical Setting
- Challenges in Clinical Teaching
- Coaching for Professional Conduct in the Clinical Setting
Upcoming Dates:
- Feb 24, 2025 - Part 1
- Apr 24, 2025 - Part 2
- Jun 4, 2025 - Part 1
Education Leadership
The Education Leadership Certificate is meant for faculty and staff who are in leadership roles related to education, or are pursuing such roles. Participants will learn about leadership theories and styles, and discover their own strengths as leaders to support others and to engage in change management towards social justice in health professions education. Participants should come with at least a basic understanding of the ways in which systemic oppression and interpersonal bias impact our learning environments and learners, and prior participation in Educators Essentials or other faculty development focused on these topics is strongly encouraged. Certificate completion requires participation in 2 full day in-person sessions (part 1 and part 2, to be taken in order), as well as an experiential activity of your choosing (approximate time commitment 2 hours).
Target Audience: This certificate is only open to faculty and staff from UCSF schools and targets those who have educational leadership positions or are on a career trajectory towards such positions.
Topics addressed in this certificate
- Leadership Theories and Styles
- Discovering Your Leadership Style
- Organization of Health Professions Education
- Project and Time Management
- Setting a Mission and Vision
- Principles of Change Management
- Change Management Towards Social Justice in Health Professions Education
- Leading Teams Through Challenges and Conflict
- Finding Joy and Maintaining Wellbeing as a Leader
- Coaching Others
Interprofessional Teaching
The Interprofessional Teaching Certificate is for faculty who want to create and/or maximize interprofessional learning opportunities in any setting. It builds upon the curriculum of the Educators Essentials Certificate and hones in on the knowledge and skills to effectively teach learners from different health professions.
Target Audience: This certificate is open to all faculty and staff across UCSF including Volunteer Clinical Professors.
Topics addressed in this certificate:
- Teamwork is Teachable: Defining and Facilitating IPE
- Engaging Learners Across the Health Professions
- Interprofessional Education in Clinical Settings
- Capitalizing on Teachable Moments
- Curriculum Development
- Leadership and Teamwork in IPC/IP Conflict
Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
The Teaching Quality Improvement and Patient Safety certificate aims to support faculty and staff serving in mentoring roles for quality improvement work at UCSF Health, such as Bridges Clinical Microsystems Coaches, GME Reflect project mentors, and medical and clinical directors who support teams to implement change. This certificate equips participants with confidence and skills to mentor teams in structured problem solving, identifying achievable aims, selecting tools to identify key drivers, and identifying target interventions, with defined process and outcome measures. The curriculum puts emphasis on aims and interventions that are inclusive and equitable for all target populations. Participants are exposed to the myriad of resources available to help drive improvement while also providing a structure and framework for simplified but meaningful data collection.
Target Audience: This certificate targets faculty across UCSF schools who supervise and mentor learners in QI and Patient Safety projects, but is also open to senior trainees and staff.
Topics addressed in this certificate:
- Setting the Stage to Mentor a QI Project
- Current State: Blueprint of the Problem at Hand
- Interventions, Data Analysis
- Sustain, Maintain, and Disseminate
Simulation Teaching
The simulation teaching certificate provides educators with foundational knowledge about educational theories underpinning the use of simulation, best practices from the simulation literature, and the skills to design and conduct simulation-based teaching sessions, with explicit consideration of strategies to minimize bias and create safe and inclusive learning environments for all. Certificate completion requires participation in one full day (Part 1) which is the same for all participants and one half day (Part 2) for which participants can choose different tracks. Part 2 includes an experiential component for participants to practice skills they learned.
Target Audience: This certificate is open to faculty (including Volunteer Clinical Professors), staff and all learners across all UCSF schools.
Topics in Part 1:
- Background and Foundational Simulation Theory
- Planning and Designing of Simulation Sessions
- Pre-briefing and Debriefing Simulations
Other Certificates Coming Soon!
Teaching for Equity and Inclusion
Typical Schedule for Daylong Sessions
8:15-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-10:00 Workshop
10-10:15 Break
10:15-11:45 Workshop
11:45-12noon Wrap up from morning sessions, Evaluations
12noon-1pm Lunch available
1-2:30 Workshop
2:30-2:45 Snack available
2:45-3:45 Workshop
3:45-4:30 Wrap-up from afternoon sessions, Reflection, Evaluations
