Yvonne Steinert, PhD
McGill University
A psychologist by training, Yvonne Steinert, PhD, professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences Education at the McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Canada, has brought her unique international perspective on faculty development and professionalism and professional identity formation to medical education.
Born in the Netherlands and now a Canadian citizen living in the French-speaking province of Québec, Dr. Steinert speaks five languages: English, French, Hebrew, Dutch, and German. Her decidedly international viewpoint and ability to communicate in multiple languages is just part of what makes Dr. Steinert such a dynamic educator.
Dr. Steinert’s research, teaching, coaching, and extensive mentoring has also been highly influential; her supervision of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and medical students has supported a generation of health professionals. She has also mentored countless colleagues, advancing their capabilities as scholars and educators.
In 2019, Dr, Steinert launched the Institute of Health Sciences Education at McGill. The first institute of its kind in Canada, the IHSE fosters interprofessional collaboration across health professions and biomedical sciences to advance research and scholarship in health sciences education.
The driving force behind the now biennial International FACDEV Conference and FacDev tracks at the Association for Medical Education in Europe conference, Dr. Steinert has also played a major role in Canadian and Asia-Pacific medical education conferences. Her publications, which have consistently presented seminal work on faculty development as well as professionalism and professional identity formation, have become go-to references for medical educators around the world.
As David Eidelman, dean of the McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, said, “Dr. Steinert has been a foremost leader in medical education on the world stage. Her leadership, innovation, mentorship, outstanding scholarly work and translation of findings into evidence-based teaching have changed the landscape of med ed.”
Few medical education researchers have been as prolific in offering their scholarship to as many diverse audiences; Dr. Steinert has given more than 400 invited lectures, keynote addresses, presentations, and workshops at national and international scientific meetings on five continents. She’s penned more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 29 book chapters, books, or monographs, and she has earned over 70 research grants.
In 2018, Dr. Steinert was honored with Canada’s highest honor, the Order of Canada, in recognition of her transformative contributions to the field of medical education.
Dr. Steinert earned her BA in honors psychology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1971 and completed an MA in applied psychology and special education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education from the University of Toronto in 1972. She completed her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Montreal in Québec in 1977.
Learn more about the Award for Excellence in Medical Education