Active Learning Skills Workshop for Medical Educators: Briefing, Feedback, and Discussion Techniques(Simulation Academy- and Education Committee-Sponsored)

Simulation, team-based learning, flipped classroom - active learning is here to stay. To effectively engage students in critical thinking, discussion, reflection, questioning, and learning, educators need strong facilitation skills. This workshop will help participants engage with best practices in experiential and student centered learning, equipping them with tools to foster student growth in both the classroom and clinical settings. Interactive modules will cover essential topics including psychological safety, communication, and facilitation skills.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to:
  • Construct a pre-brief script that promotes psychological safety to take home and use prior to learning conversations
  • Discuss how choice of learning objective can impact your choice of debriefing and feedback method
  • Name several debriefing/feedback methods and chose the appropriate method for different learning scenarios
  • Practice leading small group discussions using group engagement strategies to maximize learner participation

Presenters: 

  • Julie C. Rice, MD, MS, FACEP
  • Tina Chen, MD
  • Sara M. Hock, MD
  • Stephanie Stapleton, MD
  • Michael Lamberta, MD, CHSE
  • Michael Cassara, DO, MSEd
  • Aga De Castro, MD, MPH, FACEP
  • Lars K. Beattie, MS, MD
  • Hillary Moss, MD
  • Tiffany Moadel, MD
  • Michael Levine, MD
  • Emily Spilseth Binstadt, MD, MPH
Authors
  • Julie C. Rice, MD, MSMS, FACEP

    Johns Hopkins University

    Dr. Rice is the Director of Simulation Education and an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Affiliate Faculty with the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety. They graduated from New York Medical College (2011) and completed their Emergency Medicine training at the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Residency Program (2015). Dr. Rice is a graduate of the American College of Physicians Teaching Fellowship (2015), the Comprehensive Instructor Course at the Center for Medical Simulation in Boston (2016) and has completed a Masters in Medical and Healthcare Simulation Education at Drexel University. She currently works at the Johns Hopkins Hospital as a clinician and simulation-based educator with a focus on collaborative practice, safety culture, and professionalism.

  • Tina Chen, MD

    Saint Louis University

    Tina Chen is the Associate Dean of Simulation and Clinical Skills for Saint Louis University School of Medicine, as well as the Director of Emergency Medicine Simulation for the Saint Louis University Emergency Medicine Residency Program. She completed Medical Simulation fellowship at the Center for Education, Simulation, and Innovation at Hartford Hospital.


  • Sara Hock

    Sara M. Hock, MD

    Rush University Medical Center

    Dr. Hock is an Assistant Professor at Rush University Medical Center and the Director for Emergency Medicine Simulation. She completed residency at the University of Chicago and fellowship at the Rush/Cook County Simulation Fellowship program. She is currently the fellowship director of the Rush Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellowship and is a faculty lead for medical student simulation at Rush Medical College. She has a strong track record in her four years of service within the SAEM Simulation Academy Executive Board, including two years as a Member-at-Large followed by two terms as Treasurer. Dr. Hock has helped manage the simulation academy budget through the pandemic and co-organized multiple virtual and in-person mentor hours. She is an active member of the research, education, and faculty development subcommittees.
  • Stephanie Stapleton, MD

    Boston Medical Center / Boston University

    Stephanie Stapleton, MD, currently serves as Director of Emergency Medicine Simulation at Boston Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She leads 450 annual contact hours of simulation for 50 attendings, 50 residents, >100 medical and PA students, and advises on advanced practice provider simulation.
    She is Vice President of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Simulation Academy Research & Scholarship Subcommittee, a member of Society of Simulation in Healthcare and the International Network for Simulation-based Pediatric Innovation, Research, and Education. She has published and presented nationally on simulation research and innovations, focusing on procedural training, pediatric resuscitation, and distance simulation. Her areas of interest are translational simulation, procedural model creation, innovations testing, and developing an adult emergency medicine simulation research community.
  • Michael Lamberta, MD, CHSE, FACEP

    Maimonides Medical Center

    Michael Lamberta is an attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. He serves as the Simulation Division Director since 2022; co-director of the Clinical Simulation fellowship since 2021; and Assistant Director for Center for Clinical Simulation and Safety since 2019. He has also been leading pre-clinical small groups in problem-based learning for SUNY Downstate College of Medicine since 2023. In his teaching roles he facilitates simulation programming with weekly regularity for a diverse group of learners from UGME to practicing physicians and inter-professional teams. Through his administrative roles he coordinates inter-professional education, patient safety and systems integration initiatives, and faculty development for hospital-wide departments and institutional ACGME programs.

    Dr. Lamberta obtained his medical degree from Rush University in Chicago (2013), completed EM residency at Jacboi/Montefiore Medical Centers in 2017, and pursued a Clinical Simulation Fellowship at Maimonides Medical Center in 2018. BA from Washington University in St. Louis (2008).

  • Michael Cassara, DO, MSEd

    Northwell Health | Zucker School of Medicine

    Dr. Cassara is Vice President for Northwell Health’s Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice and Medical Director for the Center for Learning and Innovation’s Patient Safety Institute and Emergency Medical Institute. He is also Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Science Education at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and Associate Professor (Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies) at the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. His clinical appointment is in the Department of Emergency Medicine at North Shore University Hospital and serves as Emergency Medicine Residency Program as Core Faculty. From July 2003 through July 2014, he served as Assistant/Associate Program Director. In 2017, he was named Founding Director of the Northwell Health Emergency Medicine Service Line’s (EMSL) Healthcare Simulation Fellowship and in 2021 became the fellowship’s Director of Simulation Research and Scholarship. He also serves the EMSL as Co-Director for the EMSL’s Oral Certification Examination Review Course and faculty for the simulation-based EMSL Attending Physician Resuscitation Course.

    Dr. Cassara completed his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry (Minor in English) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and graduated from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1997. Following his Residency in Emergency Medicine at North Shore University Hospital in 2000, Dr. Cassara completed the EMF/ACEP Teaching Fellowship and finished the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Mini-Fellowship: Geriatrics for Non-Geriatricians sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. In 2014, Dr. Cassara finished the AAMC’s Medical Education Research Certificate program, earned the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator credential, and completed his Masters in Medical Education at the University of Pennsylvania/Perelman School of Medicine. In 2022, he completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Basic Certificate in Safety and Quality. In 2023, he completed Cornell University’s certificate in Executive Insight; in 2024 completed ASPE’s Foundations of Standardized Patient Methodology and Advanced SP Methodology certificate programs.

    Dr. Cassara is active member in the major academic organizations in Emergency Medicine (CORD, SAEM, and ACEP), Simulation (SSH, SAEM Simulation Academy), and Health Professions Education. From 2018-2021, he served as President-elect, President, and Immediate Past President of the SAEM Simulation Academy. He serves as a reviewer for the Academic Medicine, MedEd PORTAL, MedEdPublish, Simulation in Healthcare, Academic Emergency Medicine Education and Training, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, BMJ Medical Education, Journal of Physician Assistant Education, Journal of Nursing Education, Journal of Emergency Medicine Training and Education, and other journals in health professions education.

    Dr. Cassara has received multiple awards for the quality of his editorial work and teaching across the health professions. His career interests include educational research and scholarship focuses on psychomotor skill development and assessment, evaluation of interprofessional teams, simulation-centered curriculum development and evaluation, and educational theory.
  • Aga De Castro, MD, MPH, FACEP

    Hartford Hospital / University of Connecticut

    Dr. Aga De Castro is an Emergency Medicine Physician at Hartford Hospital - a University of Connecticut School of Medicine Level 1 Trauma Center affiliate. He graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Connecticut. He finished his Medical Simulation Fellowship at Hartford Hospital. He subsequently stayed on as faculty at Hartford Hospital where he is now the Assistant Fellowship Director of the Medical Simulation Fellowship Program. He also holds an academic appointment as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

  • Lars K. Beattie, MS MD

    University of Florida

    Lars K. Beattie M.S., M.D., FACEP is the Residency Program Director at the the University of Florida Health Science Center Department of Emergency Medicine (EM) in Gainesville, Florida. He is a nationally recognized speaker and leader in EM education and has been a board-certified EM physician for the last 20 years. In 2005, he co-founded the Libertas Center for Human Rights at Elmhurst Hospital, Queens, New York. Since graduating residency, he has spent 19 years immersed in EM resident and student education. His role as a clinician and resident educator involves identifying evidence-based clinical practices, translating them into teaching strategies for learners, who ultimately bring that to patient care.

    Through the construct of the Mt Sinai EM and the University of Florida Department EM Journal Club, he has coached residents and faculty in the principles of evidence-based medicine and its application in the assessment of the current medical literature. He has served on national, state, and local medical education committees including the society of Academic Emergency Medicine Simulation Academy. He has given over 25 international and national presentations and is an experienced simulation educator. He has developed over 14 cases presented in international and national conferences for the Emergency Medicine Residency Association SIMWars. He is an editor of 4 books and has authored 12 education related publications. He has been awarded 2 grants including a Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement Grant for direct services to survivors of torture at Elmhurst Hospital Libertas Center Survivors of Torture Services Project.


  • Hillary Moss, MD

    Montefiore Medical Center

    Dr Moss completed her medical school at Stony Brook University SOM. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at the Zucker NSLIJ Emergency Medicine Residency, and stayed on to complete her fellowship in Health Professions Education and Simulation. She currently works at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY where she serves as an Assistant Director of Simulation Education and served as the Director of PA/NP Education. She is starting a new role at Einstein College of Medicine as the Director of the Transition to Clerkship Course and Theme Leader for Procedural Skills and Physical Examination for all medical students. She is heavily involved in residency simulation, residency education, and resident research and her current work is on expanding the teaching of palliative care to EM Residents.

  • Tiffany Moadel, MD

    Northwell Health, North Shore University Hospital

    Dr. Moadel is the Director for Simulation at North Shore University Hospital, Northwell Health and serves as the Director of the Healthcare Simulation Fellowship within the Emergency Medicine Service Line at Northwell Health. She is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Prior her current roles, Dr. Moadel completed a Medical Simulation Fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine and continued for two years as the Director for Medical Student Simulation at the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale Center for Medical Simulation. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Simulation Academy’s Young Educator Award. She currently serves on the Simulation Academy Executive Board as Treasurer and serves as the lead for the Research Consultation Service as well as a liaison to the CORD Simulation Community of Practice on their joint Simulation Consult Service. Dr. Moadel's research interests include a grant-funded project utilizing simulation for microaggressions training, and utilizing simulation for novel applications in medical education.

  • Michael Levine, MD

    The Brooklyn Hospital Center

    Jacobi/Monte for residency, NYPQ for sim fellowship, ED attending and director of ED simulation at TBHC


  • Emily S. Binstadt, MD, MPH

    Regions/Health Partners

    Dr Binstadt is passionate about exploring the best ways to teach residents and faculty and provide high-quality emergency care to patients. She is interested in issues of justice, equity, inclusion, and belonging, medical education using simulation, procedural skills training, experiences of women in medicine, wilderness medicine, and ethics. She also enjoys maximizing her time spent outside in natural environments, traveling, and with her family.