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AAHC Leadership Institute at the Vanderbilt
Center for Better Health

View previous attendees talking about
their experiences at the Leadership Institute.

(download .wmv)

Download the brochure.

Academic health centers across the country face significant challenges and opportunities in all of their mission areas. The pressures to succeed are pushing academic health center leaders and their leadership teams to explore new organizational structures, redesign strategic plans, and examine new ways of doing business.  In response to these needs, the Leadership Institute of the Association of Academic Health Centers was created in 2006 to assist leaders of academic health centers in developing and executing strategies designed to help their institutions perform at the highest levels possible.

The AAHC, through a collaborative effort with the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health at Vanderbilt University, convenes workshops specifically targeted for senior academic health center teams on topics that leaders have reported as priority areas. These team-based workshops, featuring an accelerated learning and action environment, allow participants to work with both their own team and teams from other institutions to explore opportunities and ideas, design strategies, and ultimately develop concrete action plans to implement at their home institution.

In response to demand, this year’s offerings also include a newly designed workshop for individual senior leaders.  Designed to allow institutions to send key leaders as individual attendees, the workshop will offer highly focused opportunities to maximize leadership potential within the academic health center. 

2007-2008 Academic Year Team Offerings:

General Overview of the Workshop Format:

The workshops offered by the AAHC Leadership Institute are unlike most educational events or traditional workshops. Working in an accelerated learning and action environment, participants apply new information as it is generated over the two day period to specific plans for their own institution. This work speeds critical thinking about the content, and results in a product to take home to initiate action on what has been learned.

The workshops utilize the methodologies and tools of the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health (VCBH), an entity that has teamed with the Association of Academic Health Centers to develop and offer active learning programs focused on leaders of academic health centers. The sessions utilize individual, team, and large-group modes as participants are guided by the VCBH staff. Facilitators guide teams of senior leaders from different institutions as they work together to explore and share information and ideas, to develop strategies to implement at their institution, to make decisions where possible, and to develop concrete plans. This work speeds critical thinking, resulting in a take-home product that enables participants to initiate action immediately on their return to their home institution.

Location and Logistics:

All the AAHC Leadership Institute offerings are held at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health’s Innovation Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The Center is uniquely designed to support accelerated learning and action events such as these workshops, with state-of-the-art technology and furnishings to support participants as they work.
Each workshop is two days, scheduled to begin at 8:00 am on Day 1 and conclude at 3:00 pm on Day 2.  A block of rooms at a nearby hotel, approximately one-half mile from the VCBH Innovation Center, is reserved for each of the workshops. Complimentary shuttles to transport workshop participants from the hotel to the VCBH Innovation Center are provided.

Cost and Registration:

Team-Based Workshops: The registration fee for each of the Team-Based workshops is $13,750 per institution and participation is limited to AAHC member institutions. This fee permits an institution to send up to eight senior leaders to the workshop.

For individual or team registration for any of the Workshops, please call or email Audra Franks at the AAHC at (202) 265-9600 or afranks@aahcdc.org.