This interactive session will focus on the rise of the competency discourse in both professional education and regulation - and some of the inadvertent and unanticipated consequences that have occurred. The concept of engagement and the role of personal emotional intelligence in supporting education and practice will be discussed with the objective of enhancing the quality of teaching, learning, assessment, and practice across the professions and the higher education sector.

Zubin Austin BScPhm MBA MISc PhD FCAHS is Professor, Murray Koffler Chair in Management, and Academic Director of the Centre for Practice Excellence at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and the Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation - Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. 

Professor Austin’s research focuses on the personal and professional development of the health workforce. He has published over 120 peer reviewed manuscripts and authored four reference texts. In 2017, he was installed as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of the Health Sciences, the highest honour for health services researchers in Canada. He is the only University of Toronto faculty member ever to have received both the President's Teaching Award for excellence in education, and the President's Research Impact Award for the social significance of his research. He has also been named undergraduate Professor of the Year on 18 separate occasions.