Survey of faculty educator development award recipients

Since 2002, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation have annually awarded the Faculty Educator Development Award (FEDA) to select junior full-time oral and maxillofacial surgery faculty. To date, 33 individuals have received this award. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the FEDA's impact on the recipients' career and assess the FEDA's strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of the recipients.

A complete list of FEDA recipients was obtained from the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, to whom a 19-question survey was electronically mailed for completion.

Twenty-two of the 33 surveys were completed and returned. Strengths of the FEDA included encouraging faculty recruitment and retention and financial support. Weaknesses included unknown selection criteria for the FEDA, unknown FEDA selection committee, and that the financial component of the award was available for only 3 of the 6 years of the FEDA requirement.

Although there are some weaknesses in the FEDA, it is the only award of its kind available to the specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery. As such, consideration should be given to expanding the number of awards given and increasing the amount of the award. In addition, academic oral and maxillofacial surgery needs to improve its recruitment and retention of junior surgical faculty to ensure the continued viability of the specialty and training programs. Suggestions for improvement are discussed.