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We are delighted to share a series featuring our Helen P. Batty Awards for Excellence and Achievement in Faculty Development winners. This article will highlight the Don Wasylenki Education Day Planning Committee, recipient of Category 2: Excellence or Innovation in Program Development and Design.

About the Award

Category 2: Excellence in Innovation in Program Development and Design of the Helen Batty Awards recognizes an outstanding faculty development program within the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto which led to the enhancement of faculty members’ teaching, education, administration, leadership, scholarship, and/or advocacy knowledge, skills, or attitudes.

About the Program

The Donald Wasylenki Education Day (DWED) is a flagship faculty development initiative within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Established in 2012, DWED was intentionally designed to address a critical and longstanding gap: the inequitable recognition, visibility, and support of education and education scholarship within academic psychiatry.

From its inception, DWED has been guided by two clear objectives:
1. To support faculty and trainees in developing knowledge and skills in teaching and education; and
2. To provide a scholarly platform for showcasing innovations, research, and works-in-progress in education.

Over nearly 15 years, DWED has evolved into a sustainable, scholarly, and innovative program that affirms education as a credible academic career pathway, supports professional identity formation as educators, and strengthens a diverse and collaborative educational community across fully affiliated and community sites.

About the Team

Don Wasylenki Education Day is co-chaired by Dr. Shaheen Darani and Dr. Csilla Kalocsai, and guided by the planning committee of John Teshima, Susan Lieff, Sophie Soklaridis, Lindsay Baker, Branka Agic, Jovana Martinovic, Certina Ho, Nikhita Singhal, Tracy Sarmiento, Ann-Marie Rasiawan, Paula Paunic, Anny Song, and Ben Gane.

The Program’s Impact

“The DWED has continued to inspire, support and encourage faculty and trainees to contribute to education scholarship and to innovate in psychiatric education. The DWED also provides an opportunity to learn from a keynote speaker, to participate in thematically related workshops, and receive mentoring on a variety of educational topics from senior faculty. Faculty and residents have an opportunity to present posters of their education innovations and scholarship.” – Ivan Silver

“As a full-time Research Staff at CAMH Education, I’ve proudly attended and presented at Donald Wasylenki Education Day (DWED) for the past three years. Research Staff play a vital role in supporting academic work of faculty members, yet they often cannot attend conferences due to exorbitant costs and the lack of institutional funding. DWED fills this critical gap by creating a low-barrier, no-cost, inclusive environment that welcomes diverse perspectives, allowing several Research Staff in my department (Analysts, Coordinators, Interns), and People with Lived Experience Advisors to attend, present our research, and deepen our collective understanding of education scholarship.” – Brooke Magel

“I highly commend the DWED leadership team and their committee members for their remarkable achievement in designing, implementing and sustaining this important faculty development academic day. DWED is scholarly and innovative; it incorporates well-established best practices of adult learning and education of health professionals and faculty development and is tied directly to the needs of faculty learners, who are representative across roles and academic ranks.” – Mary Jane Esplen

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