Education at OHSU

Educators' Collaborative

Members of the Educators Collaborative at happy hour at F&B, photo courtesy of Bill Hersh
Members of the Educators' Collaborative at happy hour in summer 2019. Photo courtesy of Bill Hersh.

Welcome to the Educators' Collaborative

The EC is a home for educators across and beyond OHSU. 

We are a community of practice for everything education, including teaching, assessment, scholarship, curriculum design, mentoring and more.

We bring educators together to improve practice, share innovative ideas and support one another in attaining new skills. 

EC membership is available to anyone at OHSU – students, trainees, staff and faculty, from all missions, schools, departments and programs. As a member, you will have multiple opportunities to connect with people who share your passion for education and to access a network of resources to support your practice as an educator.

Learn more about our guiding principles, the leadership structure of the EC and the responsibilities and requirements for advisory group members.


Benefits of membership

  • Receive the monthly edition of the EC Digest, a collection of education-related activities, calls for collaboration, professional development opportunities, and a list of recent publications by fellow EC members.
  • Join (and/or facilitate) EC Pods and Seeds (see below for more information).
  • Receive Outlook calendar invites for monthly Education Grand Rounds, which cover a variety of broadly applicable education-related topics (see below for more information).
  • Access the EC Member Dashboard, which allows you to identify colleagues for potential collaboration and mentoring.

All OHSU members are welcome to participate in the annual Symposium on Educational Excellence and to attend the monthly Education Grand Rounds. See below for more information.


Get involved

There are many ways to get involved in the EC. Activities are driven by our members, so be creative and reach out to let us know how we can support you.

  • Propose an education-focused activity and the EC Advisory Group (ECAG) will help you bring it to fruition. Some options include:
    • Presenting at Education Grand Rounds or suggesting a potential speaker or topic
    • Hosting a workshop
    • Starting a new seed (see below for more information)
  • Advertise educated-related events or publications in the monthly EC Digest (contact Devon Ritter with details)

Members are also eligible to participate in institutional service activities associated with the EC, such as joining the planning committee for the annual Symposium on Educational Excellence or taking on a role with the Educators’ Collaborative Advisory Group.


Pods and seeds

As an EC member, we invite you to get involved and join one of our pods! Pods are overarching areas of professional and academic interest shared by many of our members. We currently have four pods, which were formed based on EC member feedback:

  • Teaching, Learning and Assessment Pod
  • Training and Instructional Design Pod
  • Educational Scholarship and Research Pod
  • Health Equity Pod

As you can see, each pod is a pretty big category. In practice, pods bring members together through individual “seeds;” there are multiple seeds within each pod.

Seeds are groups that meet around a common purpose, where you can grow your expertise alongside peers and connect with potential collaborators. Seeds may be long-standing writing groups or communities of practice, short-term book groups, or something else. See seed descriptions below for more information and how to sign up.

Please note that pods and their seeds are open only to members of the EC. Not yet a member? Sign up now!

AI in Education Seed

  • The AI in Education "seed" is a community of practice for discussing and sharing best practices and use cases for generative AI in teaching and learning in health education.
  • Contact Jeffrey Jones or John Ansorge to learn more.

Writing Instruction Seed

  • Are you invested in improving student writing? Whether you're an instructor, tutor or staff support who works with student writing, we invite to join this seed that brings together people to talk writing.
  • Complete the Writing Instruction Seed interest form to receive invites to our meetings!

Culturally Aware Mentorship Seed

  • Ever wondered what lies beyond mentorship training? Are you interested in joining a community of practice that centers self-reflection, commitment to intentionality, and cultural humility? We are a vibrant community of peers who have navigated culturally responsive mentorship and are eager to delve into the nuanced landscapes of equitable mentoring practices.
  • If you're interested in joining, register to receive invites.

Learning and Development Seedmore information coming soon.

Writing Seed

  • Are you interested in joining with your peers to focus on writing as it pertains to education scholarship? Whether you are looking for accountability partners, peer review or inspiration, you've found the right place.
  • Sign-up to learn more.  

Qualitative Research Book Club Seed

  • ​​Starting on Feb 5, 2025 the Qualitative Research Book Club group will begin discussing Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide 1st Edition by Virginia Braun (Author) and Victoria Clarke (Author).
    • The OHSU Library is procuring a print copy of this book (not available online) to be on reserve so it can be checked out from the BICC Service Desk for limited time periods.
    • Meetings take place from 3 - 4 p.m. on the first Wednesdays of the month, ~Feb-Sep (depending on member availability and book).
    • Join anytime! Meetings will take place via the group's Team space (email one of the facilitators, Laura or Sylvia, to sign up and gain access).
Date Chapter(s) to discuss
Feb 5, 2025 Chapter One: It’s almost time to depart: Getting ready for your thematic analysis adventure and Chapter Two: Taking an initial lay of the land: Introducing our worked example dataset and doing familiarisation
Mar 5, 2025 Chapter Three: Exploring this world in detail: Doing coding
April 2, 2025 Chapter Four: Finding, losing, then finding your way again: Developing your themes
May 7, 2025 Chapter Five: Arriving home and telling a story about your adventure: Writing your thematic analysis report
June 4, 2025 Chapter Six: A not-so-scary theory chapter: Conceptually locating reflexive thematic analysis
July 2, 2025 Chapter Seven: So what? The importance of interpretation in reflexive thematic analysis
August 6, 2025 Chapter Eight: One big happy family? Understanding similarities and differences between reflexive TA and its methodological siblings and cousins
September 3, 2025 Chapter Nine: Getting your own house in order: Understanding what makes good reflexive thematic analysis to ensure quality

Interested in starting a Health Equity related seed? Complete the interest form below!

Are you interested in starting another “seed” within one of these pods? Do you have a seed that doesn’t fit within one of our pre-existing pods? Or just have questions? Complete this interest form and we will be in touch with you soon!


Our Events

Education Grand Rounds

The Educators' Collaborative hosts monthly Education Grand Rounds, which are held online. All sessions are recorded.

With some exceptions Grand Rounds will be held on the third Wednesday of the month, from noon - 1 p.m.

No advance registration is required to attend these sessions. To receive a calendar invite for all upcoming Grand Rounds sessions, please join the Educators' Collaborative.

December 18: Giving and receiving feedback, and how to include it in your educator’s portfolio
Presenters: Lawrence Williams, M.S. and Graciela Vidal, M.S., M.Ed.

Almost all Education Grand Round sessions since 2017 have been recorded. Our archive has an index of past session topics and speakers, and links to recordings of available past sessions.

Are you interested in presenting at a future Ed Grand Rounds? Know of someone else who would be a great presenter? If so, you can now submit your interest or suggestions via this quick form.

Symposium on Educational Excellence

The Symposium on Educational Excellence is our annual event that brings together the OHSU education community.

Each year we seek to:

  • Provide professional development in education.
  • Highlight educators’ teaching and scholarship.
  • Promote networking, collaboration and community.

2025 SEE

The next Symposium will take place on May 16, 2025.

Call for Proposals

We are now accepting proposals to present at this Spring's Symposium on Educational Excellence.

Options for submissions include interactive workshops, posters, snap talks and tables.