Dr. Sheira Schlair is the Communication and Interpersonal Skills Theme and Faculty Development Leader for the inaugural BAP (Becoming a Physician) Program, the longitudinal clinical skills program for all Einstein medical students within the new ELCP (Einstein Learning Community Program). She is an experienced medical educator with special interest and expertise in teaching and remediating communication skills and professionalism. She also serves as the President of the Leo M. Davidoff Society, the Einstein teaching society.
Dr. Schlair previously served as a Course Co-Director for the Introduction to Clinical Skills (ICM) program. Prior to that, she served for close to a decade as an Associate Program Director, Firm 1 Director and Director of Clinical Skills Assessment for the Montefiore Moses/Weiler Internal Medicine Residency Program, overseeing the OSCE and miniCEX / Direct Clinical Observation programs. During her tenure she was the recipient of several teaching awards for her work with residents and medical students. She is a graduate of the eight-year combined BA/MD program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine with concentrations in medical education scholarship and the Primary Care Track. She completed a BA in medical anthropology and also completed coursework and achieved a Certificate in European Social Sciences from University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is a graduate and former Chief Resident of the Montefiore Primary Care and Social Internal Medicine residency where she helped to initiate the residency's program in Kisoro, Uganda. Following residency training, she achieved an MS (Medical Education) and completed a General Internal Medicine fellowship at New York University School of Medicine where she also served as a teaching attending at Gouverneur and Bellevue Hospitals. She has also completed the Facilitator in Training faculty development program through the Academy on Communication in Healthcare (ACH) is now a senior faculty member and guide for their nationally recognized faculty development program.
Her research, curricular and program development focuses on doctor-patient and teacher-student communication in clinical skills education. She regularly leads faculty development efforts locally and nationally in promoting skills in patient centered and relationship centered care for clinicians and within teams, in the areas of feedback, communication, coaching and teaching praxis.