Academic medicine has evolved to embrace the diverse missions that institutions of learning and inquiry have assumed in our society (1). No longer occupants of the “ivory tower” engaged in abstract—however meritorious—work, present-day academicians are mentors, clinicians, investigators, collaborative partners, and leaders. Academic physicians must be capable of great scholarship; fulfill rigorous standards in patient care, teaching, and administration; live up to the highest expectations of the profession of medicine; and swim gracefully in rapid, turbulent waters of peer review (1). In light of the evolution of learning institutions and the expanding roles, responsibilities, and pressures of medical school faculty, we find that colleagues throughout the field of academic psychiatry have turned their attention to innovation in professional development. In this issue of Academic Psychiatry, several papers that were submitted spontaneously and reflect collegial efforts to strengthen, sustain, and support academic colleagues have been assembled to highlight the value of professional development among academic psychiatry faculty.

Professional development is understood to be a lifelong endeavor—an unrelenting, constructive effort to better one’s self—to grow one’s skills, knowledge, and self-awareness. Professional development is never quite done, even for the most accomplished of our peers. Eight articles and one letter in this issue of Academic Psychiatry deal with faculty professional development. Pato and colleagues (2) and Zisook and colleagues (3) reported on a conference series organized to support scientific literacy and evidence-based medicine “best practices” among residency training directors and other educators in the hope that these activities would inspire academic faculty to bring this teaching back to their own programs. The conference series occurred during the “pre-meetings” just before the annual meetings of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT). Training directors clearly liked these meetings and felt that they were helped in their preparedness to teach research literacy and to help trainees start their research career. The majority of training directors who attended the sessions reported using and applying the materials they received to revise their home programs’ curricula. Different from this rather traditional in-person conferencing format, De Rosier and colleagues (4) described career development conferences online. Participation in the live conference or a combined live and online version of the conference materials resulted in perceived benefit and key outcomes such as research projects, publications, and honors. Women more than men were benefited in this conference “intervention” study. The authors suggested that the Web-based approach was “a cost-effective and time efficient alternative to in-person methods.” Using a different paradigm, Murray et al. (5) described an approach to professional faculty development that entailed peer-facilitated reflection. Peer-facilitated reflection seeks to help faculty members solve “real life” problems and foster a community of shared practice with colleagues. The authors of each of these papers remind us that professional development is an iterative process meant not only for early-career faculty. Professional development can serve to enhance capacities and build on the leadership impact of midcareer and senior faculty members (6).

Development of the next generation of researchers is immensely important for the advancement of the field of academic psychiatry. Bartels and colleagues (7) described a new strategy for developing and improving early-career research training—in this case, in geriatric mental health research. The authors created a multisite, multidisciplinary research program that shared “administrative oversight, co-mentoring, peer-review, and web-based seminars…by capitalizing on training resources and methodological expertise pooled from different research groups and mentors” and by recruiting fellows with doctoral degrees. It would be interesting and useful to attempt to expand such a program to medical students as potential prospective academics. One recently described successful program to support academic career development, using an intensive summer program format, was led by medical students (8).

Other papers in this collection pertain to what many believe to be the most fundamental commitment of academic medicine: clinical teaching skills. Academic physicians refine their clinical skills through the two deliberate activities of reflective clinical practice and scholarship (9). The nature of clinical teaching has changed dramatically over the past two decades, and faculty teaching responsibilities continue to expand—in numbers of students, in numbers of hours, and in numbers of health professions taught in academic programs (10). Two memorable models meant to help clinical educators to be focused and careful about their teaching activities are the One Minute Preceptor (OMP) and the Summarize, Narrow, Analyze, Probe, Plan, Select (SNAPPS) approach. These methods may provide, as the authors suggest, clinical teachers “with a beneficial framework and requisite skills to teach in ways that promote and maximize learning” (10).

Park and Surber (11) give an updated roadmap and decision-making process for young psychiatrists selecting their first major role as a faculty member by highlighting the attributes of a desirable academic position. They emphasize that academic physicians in the current job marketplace give more emphasis on family and personal preferences—factors that may influence a choice of career. Interestingly, and counterintuitively, among women graduates in the National Cohort Study of U.S. Graduates published elsewhere (12), the specialty choice of psychiatry, pediatrics, and obstetrics-gynecology were each associated with a lower likelihood of faculty appointments. Among male graduates, psychiatry and pediatrics were associated with a greater likelihood of faculty appointments. The authors suggested that there may be a greater effort to recruit men into academic roles in psychiatry and other specialties in which women represent the majority of trainees and early-career faculty candidates.

Two brief pieces address some other aspects of academic career and professional development, including associate training directors’ satisfaction with their job (13) and what is involved in writing letters of recommendation for promotion (14). Interestingly, the job satisfaction of associate training directors varies with the length of being in the job—the “beginners” and “seasoned associate training directors” (being in the job for more than 6 years) are more satisfied than those being in the job 4–5 years (13). In spite of its limitations, this study shows that more work needs to be done to understand the job trajectory of associate training directors, and probably training directors, and their satisfaction with the job.

This interesting collection of papers signals how professional development for academic faculty is becoming increasingly important—preparing academic physicians to carry the diverse responsibilities of institutions of learning, helping to foster successful careers, and ensuring the intellectual quality and skills of our field. Lifelong dedication to professional development—of increasing relevance as maintenance of certification within the specialties of medicine has been adopted broadly, for example—is not really new. As we reflect on our field’s greatest leaders and mentors, the individuals who have had the greatest influence have also been relentless learners. Professional development is just the formal expression of this desire and aspiration that resides in individuals, is supported through the commitment of the institutions, and ultimately helps us to serve others in society.