Okeanis Vaou, MD, FAAN, joins us for a new episode on the Faculty Factory Podcast to walk us through ways to combat toxic workplace environments and difficult behaviors.

Interprofessional incivility is a growing problem that needs to be addressed, especially, as we learn this week, toxic individuals (when left unchecked) are very skilled at cultivating institutional power to protect themselves and bully their way to the top.

Dr. Vaou serves as Associate Professor of Neurology, Division Chief of the Movement Disorders Program, Director of the PF Comprehensive Care Center, Director of the Movement Disorders Fellowship, Bradley Dawson Endowed Chair in Movement Disorders, and Vice Chair of Faculty Development at the Joe R. and Theresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

Unfortunately, high-stress, high-pressure environments within our profession mean that many of us are exposed to incivility. When these behaviors go unaddressed, they lead to a lot of festering issues.

“When it is actually happening, you should call it out,” Dr. Vaou explains.

The bottom line is that these behaviors and toxic environments must be tackled head-on and tolerating this behavior must become a thing of the past. Want to ask Dr. Vaou a question about all this? You can email her: vaou@uthscsa.edu

We are thrilled to give a tip of the cap to our friend Rachel Salas, MD, MEd, for putting us in touch with Dr. Vaou to make today’s episode possible! Please make sure to visit Dr. Salas’s rich archive of podcast episodes after you're done listening to today’s broadcast:

• Episode 216 – Advice for Making Life-Changing Decisions
• Episode 199 – Coaching and Strength-Based Approaches to Keep us Progressing
• Episode 92 – The Practical Use of Strength-Based Psychology

Today marks the 400th episode of the Faculty Factory Podcast, and to officially ring in this landmark achievement of our weekly podcast and its wonderful community that will soon reach its 8th birthday in December, we are ecstatic to announce the launch of our fourth book: "An Anthology of Academic Transitions: Faculty Factory Interviews on Retiring & Rewiring."

Drawn from the Faculty Factory Podcast's rich archive of interviews with deans, department chairs, physicians, and academic leaders, this anthology is an unbiased road map for nearly every facet of major career transitions and the retirement journey. We hope you will share a link to this book with a friend: https://facultyfactory.org/ebook/#retire

You can also download this eBook for free as a PDF: https://facultyfactory.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/An-Anthology-of-Academic-Transitions-Faculty-Factory-Interviews-on-Retiring-and-Rewiring.pdf

And/or order a print version of this book, or a Kindle version of it, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Academic-Transitions-Interviews-Retiring/dp/B0HKLZ3X27/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

The Faculty Factory Podcast is proud to be sponsored by the Office of the Provost at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). We are grateful to Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD, President of UTMB and CEO of UTMB Health System, and Susan Chubinskaya, PhD, MS, Senior Vice President, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer, for their continued support.

We would also like to thank the following guests, whose interviews form the heart of this book: Lawrence Appel, MD, MPH; Yuval Bar-Or, PhD; Janet Bickel, MA; Ann Brown, MD, MHS; Oscar W. "Skip" Brown, MD; Peter Densen, MD; Vicki Freeman, PhD; Darrell G. Kirch, MD; Jeffrey M. Lyness, MD, FACPsych; Michael Malloy, MD; David Niesel, PhD; Susan M. Pollart, MD; Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD; David A. Rogers, MD, MHPE; Paul Rothman, MD; Angela Sharkey, MD; Kimberly A. Skarupski, PhD, MPH; David J. Skorton, MD; Patrick O. Smith, PhD, ABPP; Wiley "Chip" Souba, MD; Donna Vogel, MD, PhD; Cary C. Ward, MD; Wendy Ward, PhD, ABPP, FAPA, FNAP; Carol Ziminski, MD; and Brian Zink, MD.

There are many Faculty Factory episodes to revisit and put on repeat when it comes to saving time.

With all of us in academic medicine looking to make the most out of the 24 hours we're all allotted each day, we've reached back into our archives and pulled out crucial moments from three important past interviews on time management.

Included in these clips are nuggets about how slowing down and being more deliberate is actually faster in the long run in many circumstances, and some clinical time-saving advice that may also help you be more present in the moment with patients.

Conversations featured in this compilation include clips from the following episodes:

• Episode 111 – Habits and Hacks with Vaninder K. Dhillon, MD, FACS
• Episode 254 – Happiness in Academic Health Comes from Better Time Management with Ashley Paul, MD
• Episode 288 – Chips, Chunks, and Email Hygiene with Ashley Paul, MD

In August, we brought you Part 1 of this two-part "best of" series on time management strategies. You can revisit it here: Time Management Tactics: Prioritization and List-Making Strategies for Faculty.

Next week we will be celebrating episode no. 400, and we cannot thank you enough for helping us get there as a listener, contributor, or supporter. Here’s to 400 more!