Katherine Wisener, PhD
Scholar
Dr. Katherine Wisener is Director of Faculty Development in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. She holds a PhD in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University for her research aimed at exploring the complex factors influencing the recruitment, motivation, and retention of clinical educators. It identified how institutional incentives, recognition practices, and learner feedback can support or undermine faculty engagement dependent on an array of factors. Drawing on qualitative methodologies and interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives, Dr. Wisener’s scholarship offers practical insights into strengthening clinical teaching capacity and fostering supportive educational environments.
Dr. Wisener’s broader scholarship and educational leadership emphasize faculty engagement and development, and has led strategic initiatives and projects addressing feedback, trauma-informed education, competency-based education and anti-oppressive teaching practices. Through her integrated approach to research, teaching, and educational leadership, Dr. Wisener seeks to advance equitable, sustainable, and evidence-informed health professions education.
Research Interests
Dr. Wisener’s research focuses on the interpersonal, structural, and psychological dynamics that shape health professionals’ motivation and engagement with educating medical students, residents and health professions learners. Integral to this, is the study of feedback processes from learners to faculty and how faculty development can continue to support teaching faculty in health professions education. Grounded in motivation theories from the fields of psychology, organizational behaviour, and behavioural economics, she aims to apply these lenses to better understand and teach how faculty are valued by the institutions they work in, particularly given power hierarchies, institutional pressures, and feedback fatigue.
Recent Grants
- University of British Columbia’s Strategic Initiatives Grants in the Faculty of Medicine (2026-28). $194,021.
- Joint Standing Committee Rural Education Action Plan (2025-26). $444,000.
- UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (2024-25). $49,934.
- University of British Columbia’s Indigenous Strategic Initiatives Fund (2023-26). $249,350.
- Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada AMS/CanMEDS (2019-20). $22,824.
Recent Publication Highlights
- Wisener K. The pitfalls and perils of anonymous learner feedback. Medical Education. 2025;58(12):1436-1438.
- Wisener K, Driessen E, Tan A, Cuncic C, Eva K. From constructive to critical and everywhere in between: An exploration of education leaders’ reactions to upward feedback. Advances in Health Sciences Education. 2025;30(2):497-513.
- Marcel D, Buckley H, Wisener K. Focus on faculty development. Canadian Medical Education Journal. 2024;13;15(5):1.
- Armstrong A, Wisener K, Jarvis-Selinger S. The more things change, the more they stay the same: Residents perspectives on learning to teach over seven years. JBJS Open Access. 2023;8(2):e22.00133.
- Oshiro J, Wisener K, Nash AL, Stanley B, Jarvis-Selinger S. Recruiting the next generation of rural healthcare practitioners: the impact of an online mentoring program on career and educational goals in rural youth. Rural and Remote Health. 2023;23: 8216.
- Wisener K, Hart K, Driessen E. Cuncic C, Veerapen K, Eva K. Upward Feedback: Exploring learner perspectives on giving feedback to their teachers. Perspectives on Medical Education. 2023;22;2(1):99.
- Kahlke R, McConnell M, Wisener K, Eva K. The disconnect between knowing and doing in health professions education and practice. Advances in Health Sciences Education. 2020;25:227-240.
- Wisener K, Eva K. Incentivizing medical teachers: Exploring the role of incentives in influencing motivations. Academic Medicine. 2018;93(11): S52-S59.
Awards and Distinctions
- Applegarth Staff Service Award, University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine
- Graduate Entrance Scholarship, University of British Columbia
- Two-time selected corresponding author on the “Med Ed Must Reads” list