Photo of the entire STFM CBME Task Force receiving the President's Award at the STFM Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, UT.
Linda Montgomery, MD, MA, Vice Chair of Education for the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Family Medicine (DFM), and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Task Force, have been honored with the prestigious STFM President’s Award. This award recognizes the entire STFM CBME Task Force—who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, dedication, and explementary service toward family medicine education.
The Task Force consists of fourteen faculty and leaders from around the nation, with Dr. Montgomery as their Chair. They work to develop strategies and resources to help family medicine residency programs implement competency-based medical education (CBME)—an outcomes-based approach to the design, implementation, assessment, and evaluation of medical education programs.
The Task Force created the STFM CBME toolkit for residency programs, which provides helpful assessment tools and strategies for competency-based medical education, individualized learning plans, and more. Other notable Task Force achievements include the development of an app to record direct observations of residents, the publication of a paper outlining twenty-six recommendations for programs to follow, and administration of a year-long pilot project for thirty-three residency programs to experiment with CBME implementation.
A Great Honor
At the STFM Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, UT, Dr. Montgomery proudly stood alongside the CBME Task Force—whom she had guided for the past two years—as each CBME Task Force member received the President's Award. Dr. Montgomery deeply appreciated the chance to celebrate alongside her team—a group she has found immensely talented and inspiring.
“I'm very honored and it's very nice to have this work recognized. However, being recognized isn’t the reason why I do it—the reason is to help forward the teaching of family medicine—to help programs succeed the very best way they can.”
Dr. Montgomery was genuinely surprised by this award, admitting that “it wasn’t on my radar.” However, receiving this distinguished honor prompted her to reflect on what she cherishes most about her role as both a teacher and a leader.
“[Leading the CBME Task Force] has been one of the most enriching experiences I've had as a teacher in Family Medicine. I’ve enjoyed working with different educators at different levels of their career and watching them progress. I would encourage fellow teachers to seek out professional societies like STFM to enrich our field of academic family medicine and help us be better teachers of the discipline that we love so much.”
A heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Montgomery and the STFM CBME Task Force on this well-deserved honor. Their dedication and leadership continue to shape the future of Family Medicine education.
Linda Montgomery, MD, MA
