Introducing professional educators into academic medicine: stories of exemplars.

This article describes an oral history project aimed at documenting the history and contributions of the innovation of hiring professional educators in medical schools to improve the education of medical students, residents, and fellows. Six professional educators who spent their careers in medical schools were chosen as Exemplars: Stephen Abrahamson, Ph.D.; Charles Dohner, Ph.D.; Arthur Elstein, Ph.D.; Hilliard Jason, M.D., Ph.D.; Christine McGuire, M.A.; and Frank Stritter, Ph.D. Pairs of senior professional educators currently working in medical schools interviewed the six Exemplars using a standardized protocol. Articles describing each Exemplar appear consecutively in this and subsequent issues of Advances in Health Professions Education. The series culminates with an article that presents the consensus conclusions of the series authors, based on the five study questions that guided the study and interview protocol.