Saint Louis University Serves as Hub for National-Level Summit
The Saint Louis University Interprofessional Education Program and the Doisy College of Health Sciences will host the sixth annual Regional Summit sponsored by the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP). The event will be on Wednesday, May 20.
This initiative fosters dialogue between academic institutions and their health care industry partners to enhance collaboration and improve health outcomes. The 2026 ASAHP Summit theme is From Classrooms to Care Teams: Workforce Ready Graduates.
SLU is one of six Summit Hub locations. Others include Philadelphia, PA; Cincinnati, OH; Ft Myers, FL; Stony Brook, NY; and Houston, TX.
Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D., professor and director of interprofessional education at SLU and chair of the ASAHP Interprofessional Committee, spearheaded the Regional Summits initiative.
“ASAHP's institutional membership model gives us the unique opportunity to create academic-industry connections at the local level,” he said. “Then, combined with the innovative ‘ASAHP Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement Model’ and the virtual harvest session, we can take the important local dialogue from these Regional Summits and create national-level recommendations to improve workforce readiness for collaboration.”
The learning model was first developed in consultation with Debra Lohe, Ph.D., associate provost for teaching and learning, when SLU hosted the ASAHP's first Summit in 2019. The learning model used in these Regional Summits is designed to bridge the gap between the textbook and the real world. By allowing clinicians to voice their needs and expectations, academic institutions can identify areas of improvement and curricular modifications within their health professions training programs, which has translated into better clinical readiness.
“Strong academic-industry connections turn education into action," said Lisa Meyer, Director of Clinical Affiliations for Doisy College of Health Sciences at Saint Louis University. "By intentionally connecting classrooms to care teams, we ensure our graduates are not only clinically competent, but workforce ready—able to contribute, collaborate, and lead from day one. These relationships are essential to building strong talent pipelines that meet the evolving needs of healthcare.”
Taking place at six distinct Hub locations across the country, the SLU Summit Hub will take place from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Allied Health Professions Building. The summit will feature a full day of discussions between academia and clinical stakeholders about improving the education of health professionals to ensure better workforce readiness. The regional ‘Hub’ discussions will culminate in a virtual “Harvest” session between all six regional Hub participants.
To learn more about the Summit, or to register, visit the ASAHP website. For more information, contact anthony.breitbach@health.slu.edu or lisa.meyer@health.slu.edu.