Group Peer Mentoring (GPM) Program is a faculty development program co-led by Kimberly Bloom-Feshbach, M.D. and Swana De Gijsel, M.D., for Weill Cornell faculty. Facilitated Group Peer Mentoring has been shown in the literature to lead to career advancement, physician vitality, and have benefits in the realms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Faculty from a variety of career paths will meet every 6-8 weeks with a group of faculty peers led by trained facilitators. There will be groups available to junior and mid-career researchers, clinician educators, clinicians, and other leaders.
In this program, participants will:
The cost of the program is being fully subsidized by the Weill Cornell Dean's Office and the Weill Department of Medicine. Please find below the dates of the program:
Early Career Researchers |
| Leaders in Medical Education |
Early and Mid-Career Clinical |
| Early and Mid-Career Faculty |
To apply, please complete this application by July 1, 2022 at 5 pm EST. If you have any questions or concerns about the program or application, please contact us.
“Peer mentoring has broadened my perspective to include new directions. The group has helped me to be more adventurous because I've felt support and encouragement to try new things.”
“It's done a lot to combat imposter syndrome and has given me the confidence to pursue projects with enjoyment rather than fear. Since… participating in the group, I've applied for and was awarded a grant, have reached out to leadership more than I ever have for guidance and support, and have had the foresight and ability to pare down on projects that were not serving me.”
“Peer mentoring is incredibly valuable. It helped me to remember my values and how to align my career with those values.”
I've found fostering more meaningful and engaging relationships with my colleagues to be amazingly impactful on my joy and experience at work…peer mentorship also allows you to ask the challenging questions, not solely about your career but about your life status as well.”
“It's been a remarkably positive aspect of my work and meaningfulness in the workplace.”
Kimberly Bloom-Feshbach, M.D., is an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Section of Hospital Medicine and co-leads the Group Peer Mentoring Program. Dr. Bloom-Feshbach graduated from Yale University, summa cum laude, with a BA in Religious Studies and worked as an epidemiological researcher in the Division of Epidemiology and Population Studies of the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, collaborating with researchers at the Statens Serum Institut and Roskilde University in Denmark. She obtained her medical degree from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, followed by Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine. As a physician, medical educator and investigator, Dr. Bloom-Feshbach designs and evaluates communication and mentoring strategies with the goals of increasing humanism, vitality, and diversity in medicine. She enjoys caring for hospitalized patients at NewYork-Presbyterian/Cornell Medical Center and Lower Manhattan. In addition, Dr. Bloom-Feshbach is a co-investigator with the C-Change Mentoring and Leadership Study, a 5-year NIH-funded study based out of Brandeis. At Weill Cornell, she designs and evaluates medical education curricula from the medical student through faculty development level. She directs the Patient Care and Physicianship curriculum for pre-clinical second year medical students and serves as the Director of the Virtual Hospitalist Program at Weill Cornell and the Associate Director of Medical Services at NewYork-Presbyterian/Westchester Behavioral Health Center. Dr. Bloom-Feshbach is also Senior Faculty with Vital Talk, teaching serious illness communication skills to clinicians at Weill Cornell and beyond.
Swana De Gijsel, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Section of Hospital Medicine and co-leads the Group Peer Mentoring Program. Dr. Gijsel graduated from medical school at the University of Amsterdam and completed her residency training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Montefiore Medical Center in the Primary Care and Social medicine program. She provides direct patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital and works with residents and medical students at the Weill Cornell campus on the Upper East Side. She deeply cares about effective and empathic communication with patients, providers, and within organizations. As faculty of the Academy of Communication, she leads communication workshops and Train-the-Trainer programs. She provides coaching and leads reflection groups focusing on professional identity and well-being to health care providers. In her academic time, she leads process groups for residents and fellows, and she has a passion for food and nutrition and developed a culinary medicine elective for medical students where she teaches nutrition in a professional kitchen and collaborates with chefs and nutritionists.