AI, Leadership and Cross-Disciplinary Connection Take Centre Stage at LMP’s 2025 Faculty Development Day
On Tuesday, November 11, the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology held its annual Faculty Development Day, bringing together faculty from across education, research and clinical practice for a morning of expert talks and an afternoon of collaborative project building.
The day opened with remarks from Dr. Rita Kandel, who emphasized the importance of shared professional development and intentional collaboration across LMP’s diverse academic and clinical environments.
The first keynote was delivered by Dr. Susan McCahan, Associate Vice-President & Vice-Provost, Digital Strategies, who discussed Large-Language Models and how to use them wisely. Her session provided a grounded understanding of generative AI, focusing on responsible use, pedagogical implications, and opportunities to support innovation in health-science teaching and research.
This was followed by Dr. Brian Golden, Sandra Rotman Chair in Health Sector Strategy, who presented A primer on leading change in healthcare. He highlighted strategies for navigating complex institutional systems and leading teams through periods of uncertainty and transformation.
At 11:00 am, attendees paused for two minutes of silence in observance of Remembrance Day.
The program continued with presentations from LMP Leadership Grant recipients, who shared the training sessions they attended and what they learned. Dr. Ashley Di Meo discussed her experiences at the Rotman School of Management’s Healthcare Leadership course. Dr. Larissa Liontos then covered the lessons she learned from the Rotman’s Women in Leadership Course. Finally, Dr. Larissa Matukas shared her experiences on the Emerging Women Executives in Health Care course from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The winners of the 2024 Collaboration Catalyst Grants reported on the projects developed through last year’s Collaboration Café, demonstrating tangible outcomes from the initiative’s second cycle. Dr. Scott Yuzwa described his project with Dr. Janice Robertson on “Investigating the neurodevelopmental contributions to adult onset neurodegenerative disease” and Dr. Lingxin Zhang represented her group, giving an update on their work on establishing a community for Artificial Intelligence in Digital Pathology.
Following lunch, faculty participated in the 2025 Collaboration Café, an interactive session designed to spark cross-disciplinary connections and identify shared interests. Attendees chose from several themed discussion tables:
- AI in Laboratory Medicine
- Exploring Novel Models of Disease Using Emerging Technologies
- Enhancing Education and its Delivery
- Quality Initiatives in LMP Labs
- Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Academic Lab Medicine
- Biobanks in Translational Research
- Green Labs: Climate Change and Sustainability
Participants were invited to submit proposals for seed funding following the event. Submissions are due by December 15, 2025.
Dr. Adele Changoor who attended the event commented, “Everything about the day was great but I found the talk on AI particularly useful. We are currently trying to write a policy for our lab on how students should use AI as we all feel there is a need for more guidance. As the speaker said: ‘Think first and use the AI for augmentation or editing’, however some students depend on it too much and let it do their ‘thinking’ for them. It’s a real challenge we’re facing, and it was great to cover it today.”
Another attendee commented, “The talks this year were really good and practical. I enjoyed connecting with other faculty members (pathologists and non-pathologists). Hopefully we can collaborate on some education projects together”.
Dr. Kandel said of the day, “It was wonderful to get to see so many of our faculty from across our community who had come together to collectively learn and create. It was also an opportunity to acquire new ways to handle all the change ahead of us.”
We will announce the projects funded by these catalyst grants in spring 2026.
More on Faculty Development Day
See the full agenda for Faculty Development Day 2025
2024 Faculty Development Day - what happened and which projects were funded in LMP’s Faculty Development Day aims to advance new technologies
2023 Faculty Development Day - event recap in LMP’s inaugural Faculty Development Day brings people together and the funding results in LMP seed funding powers new collaborations
This initiative showcases all pillars of the LMP Strategic Plan 2023 - 2028.
