Senior Teaching Fellow

Who I am and my role at WMS

My name is Mark Richards and I joined WMS in February 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow as part of the Cell and Tissue Biomedicine team for the MBChB course. Working closely with Theme and Block leads my role is focused on the delivery of teaching, mostly for the Phase I component of the course. My responsibilities involve producing teaching content, facilitating Case Based Learning sessions, assessments, project supervision and student support. Prior to working at WMS I was an active research scientist at the University of Manchester and University of Oxford investigating aspects of cardiac physiology and pathophysiology.

What attracted me to join WMS

During my time as a lab-based researcher I took the opportunity to engage with various aspects of teaching, from lectures and tutorials to student supervision and practical-based teaching. It gave me an appreciation of the rewarding and fulfilling role of interacting with students in medical/biomedical education. I made the decision to focus my career on providing education support to students in a medical setting. I chose to apply to WMS based on its reputation as a leading medical education institution and as the perfect environment to facilitate my transition to a dedicated teaching role. I was also particularly attracted by the dedication of WMS to the ongoing development of its teaching staff through its emphasis on continued professional development in medical education.

My experience at WMS so far

I have only been at WMS for a matter of weeks, but my experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive. The WMS staff and my close colleagues have been extremely supportive with their warm welcome, encouragement, and contributions to help me begin in my new role. The students have been very engaging, and the teaching I have delivered to date I have found stimulating and interesting. The attitudes of the staff in providing the highest standards of education and their approach to enhancing the experience of the students, especially during the challenges of the COVID-19 situation, has been inspiring and I hope my contributions to the MBChB course will also meet these high standards. I feel very enthusiastic about my future working with the staff and students here and look forward to developing my teaching career at WMS.