Building our capability

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Dr Pamela J. Ferrada (BBiochem 1st, MTeach, PhD) works in Risk Education and is the current chair of the Work, Health & Safety Committee at MIPS.

Pamela is a biomedical scientist with a background in HIV-1 and fetal and adult human stem cell research. Originally from Chile, Pamela migrated to Australia in 2008 to complete a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) - University of Queensland. This was made possible by an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) from the Australian Government for outstanding international applicants. 

A published author in HIV-1 biology and fetal stem cell research, Pamela spent over ten years working in human stem cell research and virology in Australia, Chile and the USA. Early in 2020, she became an educator after completing a Master of Teaching at Australian Catholic University and joined the Risk Education team at MIPS. Pamela has also completed a Medical Law course with Barry Nilsson Lawyers in Queensland.

Last year, Pamela was selected to participate in a prestigious 'Training to Teach in Medicine' postgraduate certificate at Harvard Medical School. Scholars who join this program are taught by eminent Harvard Medical School faculty members and learn from peer clinical educators across the globe, receiving direct feedback on their teaching and curricular development skills.

Leveraging a workplace-based capstone project, Pamela is developing and implementing curricular innovations to the MIPS Risk Education Program employing evidence-based and theoretically grounded andragogical frameworks and active teaching strategies tailored for medical learners.

Combining academic research and clinico-legal expertise from colleagues and mentors at MIPS, Pamela’s work aims to improve and expand MIPS clinico-legal educational offering to different areas of clinical relevance. These include informed consent to clinical intervention, metacognition development in medical learners and court-based education on death certification, amongst others. 

For more information on MIPS Risk Education offerings, visit our education page: https://www.mips.com.au/education/education-and-training 

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