Priority A: Strengthen mission-driven recruitment and admissions

Initiatives

• Redesign the interview rubric to be competency-based with a focus on preparedness, aligned with AAMC core competencies and the Catholic, Jesuit mission, probing vocation, resilience, and patient-centered orientation.
• Develop an automated data pipeline between Educational Affairs and Admissions to integrate near-real-time student outcomes into candidate evaluation and continuously refine the admissions process.
• Pilot a linkage program aligned with our Jesuit mission.

Priority B: Implement curricula that advance academic excellence and clinical readiness

Initiatives

• Adopt a student-centric learning model with individualized learning plans supporting academic and professional development.
• Modify curriculum structure to enhance knowledge acquisition, retention, and integration based on comprehensive evaluation.
• Integrate progressive assessment of core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) across the curricular continuum.

Priority C: Foster a culture of excellence, opportunity, and belonging

Initiative

• Expand student pathway programs to enhance recruitment into the medical profession.

Priority D: Develop exemplary educators and a culture of continuous improvement

Initiatives

• Develop the Department of Medical Education (DOME) as the nexus for faculty development and educational scholarship.
• Implement certificate programs offering advanced training in clinical teaching, curriculum development, leadership, and educational research.
• Provide robust instructional design resources to support the educational mission across the curricular continuum.
• Evaluate novel technologies and pedagogical approaches to enhance clinical education effectiveness.
• Offer professional development opportunities for residents to grow as effective clinical teachers.
• Embed a continuous quality improvement culture to sustain educational outcomes and accreditation compliance.
• Strengthen pathways that support faculty and trainees in translating educational innovation into educational scholarship, including research, dissemination, publication, and external funding opportunities.

Priority A: Maintain/grow (capacity for) extramural programs of Stritch research

Initiatives

• Fully adopt the new electronic research administration (eRA), Cayuse
• Reduce timelines for full execution of research-related contracts
• Inventory major equipment and resources that support research across Stritch
• Implement a systematic approach to capturing scholarly output of faculty, staff and trainees

Priority B: Increase reputational impact of Stritch research

Initiatives

• Increase engagement with University Marketing and Communication (UMC) for branding, advertising, digital content, social media and media relations specific to Stritch research
• Increase engagement with Advancement to grow philanthropic giving for research (and training in research)
• Increase licensing opportunities for protected intellectual property.

Priority A: Initiate an advancement strategy at the service of mission-differentiating roles and programs

Initiative

• Pursue an advancement strategy to lay the foundation to fund and/or endow mission-differentiating programming and roles in the Center for Community and Global Health (CCGH) and Health Sciences Campus (HSC) Ministry.

Priority B: Measure and celebrate mission-driven contributions

Initiatives

• Create an annual scorecard and report from student organizations to measure the reach and impact of student service, engagement, and mission-related activities — the majority of which currently are untracked.
• Develop a parallel tracking mechanism to recognize and celebrate faculty and staff service to our mission, that occurs outside established channels and is largely unacknowledged.
• Explore a Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) or equivalent database solution for student organization reporting and collaborate with University offices to align data collection efforts and ensure Stritch’s contributions are included in university-wide metrics.

Priority C: Identify areas where the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm can be both further integrated and called out within the curriculum

Initiatives

• Reinvigorate Ignatian reflective practices in the curriculum so students encounter the framework early and carry it through an integrated sequence.
• Bring any proposed curricular changes to the appropriate faculty and administrative leadership (Central Curricular Authority, CCA) for review.

Priority D: Orient and connect faculty, staff, and clinical hires to the Jesuit mission

Initiatives

• Establish a formal mission orientation program for all incoming Stritch faculty and staff, providing grounding in the Jesuit, Catholic identity and culture of the Health Sciences Campus.
• Develop a second-tier orientation specifically for clinical faculty/physicians with teaching responsibilities, helping them connect their educational role to the institutional mission amid clinical productivity demands.
• Improve access to and tailoring university-level Ignatian pedagogy resources and teaching tools for medical and clinical educators, bridging the gap between HSC and the broader Loyola community.

Priority A: Strengthen enrollment strategy, academic identity, and institutional integration

Initiatives

• Develop a medical school enrollment strategy aligned with Loyola’s Jesuit identity and mission, national physician workforce needs, and Stritch’s evolving educational priorities.
• Promote Stritch’s academic identity as a program that produces physician leaders with strong clinical skill, empathy, social engagement, and intellectual depth — grounded in the Jesuit mission and situated within an R1 research university.
• Improve operational and academic integration across LUC campuses, Loyola University Health System, and Trinity Health to support medical student training, faculty development, and hospital engagement across the medical enterprise.

Priority B: Build capacity for research, innovation, and clinical training growth

Initiatives

• Expand research infrastructure to support LUC’s R1 trajectory, including wet lab capacity, CTRE utilization, technology transfer processes, and experiential learning opportunities for students and faculty
• Increase clinical training capacity by broadening clerkship site availability, reducing overcrowding in existing rotations, and aligning systemwide clinical education planning with Trinity Health partners.

Priority C: Modernize curriculum delivery and optimize physical learning spaces

Initiatives

• Enhance the pre-clinical curriculum to integrate content that supports USMLE Step success, emerging AI and VR-based instructional tools, and experiential learning models that better prepare students for clinical training.
• Expand, modernize, remodel, or repurpose key educational and research spaces — including the Center for Translational Research & Education (CTRE), the Comparative Medicine Facility (CMF), Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center (CBCC), and Cuneo building — and clerkship teaching environments, to meet programmatic and curricular needs.
• Ensure Stritch facility upgrades are planned in parallel with major university capital projects — such as the Nursing and Science Building and the Student Success Center — to maintain parity and institutional competitiveness.

Priority D: Modernize digital systems, data infrastructure, and policy governance

Initiatives

• Align Stritch digital system upgrades with the University’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Transformation initiative, ensuring compatibility across finance, human resources and student information systems.
• Modernize Stritch-specific platforms — including LUMEN, grading systems, assessment tools, and room scheduling — to improve reliability, usability, and integration with institutional data systems.
• Establish transparent and predictable processes for policy creation, review, and communication across the medical school to improve governance clarity and operational consistency.
• Improve data accessibility to support academic planning, accreditation reporting, clinical operations, research administration, and continuous quality improvement.