The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) hosted its annual Learn Serve Lead conference Nov. 1-5, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas. The conference gathered leaders and professionals from across academic medicine to discuss pertinent issues in health and health care.
This year’s Leadership Plenary was held on Nov. 3 and included a discussion between AAMC Board Chair Julie A. Freischlag, M.D., and AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, M.D. about finding your “why” and your motivation throughout your career in medicine.
Heersink School of Medicine was represented by a select group of faculty members who brought back key takeaways to share with the rest of the Heersink community. Christina Grabowski, Ph.D., associate dean for Admissions and Enrollment Management, agreed to provide insight into her experience at the conference this year and share some of the topics significant to her colleagues in 2025.
From a big picture perspective, Grabowski noted the importance of connecting with peers from around the country. “When I’m on national committees or working groups, we often meet at the conference and continue to do our work. I’m a member of the AMCAS Advisory Committee, and we met for a half day before the actual Learn Serve Lead kicked off.”
The AMCAS Advisory Committee is made of professionals who help advise the Centralized Application Service on changes to the medical student application or to the support structures around the admissions process. “We met to talk about changes to the application process and some of the current events impacting medical school admissions and what tools, services, or processes need to be updated in relation to support applicants and schools.”
Such meetings are impactful throughout the conference. Grabowski mentioned one significant advantage to attending is the ability to learn from others. She said being able to hear how others are addressing challenges similar to those she sees is invaluable.
A primary concern for admissions and enrollment management this year was the changes to the federal financial aid loans. “It was helpful to network with others to learn how they’re advising their students,” she said. “What other kinds of processes and procedures are they considering to support students? The new loan requirements are grandfathered in for three years for current students; however, it requires continuous enrollment, so we have to think about how we might support students who have disruption in their education. How do we make sure students can get through medical school in light of these new loan restrictions?” Grabowski attended a conference session dedicated to brainstorming these points and pointed out that even between sessions, discussions between her peers tended to focus on these federal changes as well.
She also presented at one of the breakout sessions during the week. She serves on the AAMC PREview Learning Lab group. The PREview exam is a situational judgment exam created by the AAMC and implemented into the application process, that assesses professional readiness in the areas of personal accountability and relational skills. Heersink School of Medicine has been a pilot school since the exam’s inception. Grabowski, along with another school’s representative spoke to gathered peers, including pre-health advisors and representatives from admissions offices, pathway programs, and student affairs. “I spoke about how we use PREview in our admissions process and how we see ourselves using it in the future as we get more data around the usefulness and effectiveness of the tool.”
Another session of interest to her related to transition to residency. The session discussed the impact of STEP 1 moving to pass/fail and how that has changed the process for students applying to residencies. “A lot of times students are assuming they need more and more research to receive interviews with residencies, but the data are showing mixed messages around that. In some specialties, there really is relatively no change to how much research is expected compared to what it was prior to pass/fail. The research-intensive specialties prior to pass/fail are still research intensive, but the specialties that weren’t intensive before do not seem to have made any significant changes in what they expect from students.” She says it’s important for this data, as well as other similar studies, be shared with admissions and advisement areas, so they can more effectively guide students through the path to residency.
Grabowski said when attending Learn Serve Lead, a service they provide worth exploring is the one-on-one Q&As available through the AAMC Marketplace. She found it helpful to speak one on one with area experts (she booked a session with an AMCAS specialist) outside of the broader and more crowded sessions. The experience reinforced the importance Learn Serve Lead places on connecting with others.
Click here to learn more about Learn Serve Lead 2025, to read round-up articles from the conference, or to find information about next year’s event.