A Commitment to Student Engagement: Dr. Kamla Ahluwalia, Department Chair of Health Sciences at Samuel Merritt University

Lindsey Smith

Hi, I'm Lindsey Smith, welcoming you to Raise the Line from Elsevier, an ongoing exploration about how to improve health and healthcare.

Today we're joined by one of the winners of the 2026 Raise the Line Faculty Awards from Elsevier Health. This year's honorees were selected for more than a thousand nominations submitted by students and colleagues across more than 300 institutions worldwide. The testimonies that came in were extraordinary: heartfelt, specific, and deeply personal accounts of educators who have helped shape the next generation of healthcare professionals.

I'm honored to welcome Dr. Kamla Ahluwalia, department chair of Health Science at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, California, and the winner of the Anatomy and Physiology category.

Welcome to the show and congratulations, Kamla.

Kamla Ahluwalia

Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Lindsey Smith

So let's start from the very beginning. Can you tell us what drew you to education and how did you find your way to where you are today?

Kamla Ahluwalia

What drew me to education? Well, grad school is when I got my first taste of teaching. You used to get extra stipends if you were a TA for different courses, and so I started actually running labs for the undergraduate anatomy courses at SUNY Stonybrook and thought this is so much more fun than collecting data.

Lindsey Smith

That's awesome. What a journey to get started in grad school. And tell us what you're doing today.

Kamla Ahluwalia

So now I spend a lot of time teaching. I teach gross anatomy primarily to the physical therapy students, doctoral students of physical therapy, and master students in the physician assistant program at Samuel Merrill University. But I'm also the chair of the Health Sciences department, and we have a couple programs in there, like the Masters of Health Administration and a bachelor's of health sciences and these are new programs.

So, I've been spending a lot of time developing curricula and creating pathways. I'm really excited about the Bachelor of Health Sciences. It's this degree completion program. So, you know, people who didn't quite finish their undergrad and are interested in healthcare and they can do it in the evening and we're creating pathways to graduate programming. So it's kind of exciting to meet new students that are younger than the ones I'm used to teaching.

Lindsey Smith

Absolutely. So many wonderful programs that you mentioned, and we'll be sure to link those in the show notes as well for our listeners. But let's come back to your students. So your students hold you in incredibly high regard. That's been very obvious from the nominations that we received for the Raise the Line Faculty Awards and I'm curious about the influences behind you. So was there a person, experience or someone that played a major role in shaping the kind of educator you are today?

Kamla Ahluwalia

Sure, absolutely. A lot of people played a role. I think I've learned a lot from my students, but I think the first person would be my thesis advisor when I was in grad school. His name is Jack Stern and he was the chair of the anatomy department, so he actually gave me my first taste of human anatomy. But I think more importantly, he was a phenomenal educator. He won all the awards, he was amazing.

I remember -- this was decades ago, but I can still see him doing it -- giving this lecture on locomotion and he was so committed to it. He was so engaged. He was enthusiastic. He was excited to teach us and I could see him standing on the stage yelling and pounding his chest like a gorilla and it was amazing. But it was so not who he was like as a person outside of class. He just was gonna do what he had to do to get everyone in the room with him, you know?

There were over a hundred people in the room, and everyone was engaged, and everyone was interested, learning, and I was like ‘this is what school's supposed to be.’  It really hit me that this is what it's supposed to be like and I use that a lot. I think about him a lot when I teach -- that commitment and that enthusiasm. I think his enthusiasm made us enthusiastic. I think that's really important. And just having fun. I think having fun is important in school. It's easier to learn.

Lindsey Smith

So important. And it sounds like you've taken so much of Jack's commitment, engagement, and enthusiasm forward into your own classroom based on some of these nominations that we received. So let's talk about some of those nominations. To be nominated for this award, students wrote in, submitted videos, and testimonials about you, and I wanted to share one with you.

“She is a cornerstone of the Samuel Merritt community, guiding PA, PT, nursing, and podiatry students through both anatomy lab and lecture. What truly sets her apart is her empathy and concern for students. She truly wants everyone to succeed and gives us the tools to do so. She holds extra invitational office hours for those of us who are struggling with the material, removing the stigma of remediation. She doesn't just teach anatomy.

She provides future medical providers with a foundational knowledge that will be carried long into their clinical years.”

What does that mean to you to hear something like that?

Kamla Ahluwalia

Wow. Yeah, that's like... that means everything, right? I mean, I'm all verklempt. I think we all work so hard. Everyone does. We work so hard and it seems like our work week gets longer and longer. And, you know, for me it's rewriting lectures, it's creating stories, trying to figure out how to be engaging in a different way.

To spend all of that time being engaging in a class that's four or five hours long multiple times a week, it's really exhausting. So to have the people that you do that for go really far out of their way...I mean, they're really busy students, my students, and they did all of that for me, you know. That's huge. It means everything.  I'm gonna ride this for a long time, I think. It'll keep my enthusiasm going.

Lindsey Smith

As you should. As you should. And I think it just speaks to the impact that you have and I think that's built over showing up for your students. I want to talk to you about the part of your work that feels most directly connected to real patient outcomes. Can you talk a little bit about your students, who eventually will take care of patients down the line?

Kamla Ahluwalia

Sure. I teach Gross Anatomy, right? It's a basic science. At 8 a.m. on the very first day of grad school, I'm who they meet. So it's pretty early in their careers as a health care provider. So I do feel a little disconnected from that reality of where they're trying to go. I do spend a lot of time with their clinical faculty making sure that what I'm trying to get them to understand and learn is what is most relevant for their success in the rest of their education as well as in their careers that go beyond. So I do feel that connection.

I think the most connected, and what makes me feel I'm with them more, is when they start their clinical rotations while they're in school and sometimes they'll come back to me and be like, “My preceptor pinged me with all these anatomy questions and I knew the answer.”

It drives home that it's important what we're teaching, but that they learnt it. And that's really exciting. Occasionally I get emails from students who have long since graduated and they'll be like, “This patient walked in, and it totally reminded me of that lecture. I was so grateful for that lecture.” That’s really that makes me happy.

Lindsey Smith

That has to be so rewarding for you to hear and to stay in touch with your students in that way. So let's talk about looking ahead a little bit now. What is next for you personally and what is on the horizon for Samuel Merritt University? You talked about a few new programs, but want to give you an opportunity to cover them a little more.

Kamla Ahluwalia

Sure, great. Thank you. Yeah, so the university is definitely expanding, and I'm involved in in some aspects of it and like this Bachelor of Health Sciences that we're working on. I'm also working a lot on technology. I'm really interested in technology and education. So I'm working with the other anatomists and we're bringing in immersive virtual reality, so we're having a lot of fun with the students in headsets. We're trying to start bringing AI into our courses and just to explore more technologies.

I'm now in this position where I'm not only a teacher, but I'm also in leadership and I'm in curriculum development. This is a great intersection where I can take these technologies and expand them a little bit in the university. And the university has already made really good strides in in terms of technology. We have simulation center that covers a couple floors of our new campus and the students have these opportunities to go in and practice their clinical skills in a controlled environment and gain confidence before they're going out into the clinic. 

I think the university believes strongly that we need to educate our students to be ready for the future of healthcare, not what it is today. And things change so fast right now, right? So they have to be ready for the future, but not lose sight of the basic tenets of healthcare:

interdisciplinary education; patient-centered care; ethical care; care for all people and all communities, no matter who they are, no matter what their life stories. All of these remain super important and hopefully -- and I believe it will -- technology may make some of this easier.

So it’s about doing all of it and brining the old and the new together.

Lindsey Smith

It sounds like there's real momentum there and you're sitting in such an interesting intersection. That AI piece is very exciting as well.

I wanna talk a little bit more about the future of healthcare and where education needs to go. So at Elsevier, as you know, we're an education company and we're always thinking about knowledge gaps -- what's not being taught, what's not being talked about enough. So from where you sit, what challenges or topics in healthcare education do you think aren't getting enough attention right now?

Kamla Ahluwalia

I think AI is here. There's no stopping that train, right? We need to teach our students how to harness it responsibly and ethically. There's a lot of ethical questions and a lot of companies, universities are creating, you know, HIPAA compliant AI as scribes in the clinic. I think we need to help guide our students to the best and most appropriate ways in using this technology because it's vast and you can be easily lost.

They're students, and they're brand new into this world of AI. I'm sure they've adopted it faster than most of their faculty. But in terms of in healthcare, how to do it properly, I think that is super important.

Another topic is interprofessional education, making sure that people understand all of the healthcare providers in a system and what their role is and how you work together to benefit the person who comes in and wants some help.

Lindsey Smith

Those are two great knowledge gaps. So just to play that back a little bit, how to use AI responsibly and ethically -- a great knowledge gap and top of mind for so many folks today. I know Elsevier is thinking a lot about this in the AI tools that we're creating today. And then you mentioned interprofessional education between healthcare teams. This is actually something that comes up a lot in our OHLI program, which is our student brand ambassador program, on just how different specialties are working together to create the best patient experience. So, that's a great topic as well that we'll certainly bring back to our content teams to take a look at.

So, we have a lot of students and early career clinicians in our audience, and I'd love to get some advice from you. What advice would you give to students who are preparing to enter the healthcare field right now?

Kamla Ahluwalia

I would say go in knowingly and talk to everyone you can. You know, most people have some idea of where they wanna go and you need to talk to as many people in that field as possible and in all the adjacent fields. I think about when I was even in early stages of undergrad before I embarked on this journey and I didn't know half the fields that were out there, right? There's so many options in healthcare. So, study healthcare, study what all the options are and learn what everyone does before you make a decision. I think that's super important that you explore and then dive deep and learn what that life is like.

The other thing I think is that burnout in healthcare is a real thing, and so developing self-care techniques to help you deal with stress and stressful situations, is important. We need to be able to get through the tough times. Learn resiliency. What helps you get through a stressful moment? Learn about yourself and how to help yourself. Be good to yourself. Being good to yourself is super important. Grad school is hard. Make sure you make time for yourself. Have date nights. Do fun things.

Lindsey Smith 
Absolutely. Yeah, that is great advice. So go in knowingly, dive deep in and take care of yourself. Burnout is a challenge that we hear a lot about from so many healthcare professionals today, so I'm glad you brought that up.

I want to give you a moment to recognize someone that has been important in your journey as an educator. I know you already earlier mentioned Jack Stern, but is there anyone else -- a mentor, a colleague, a student, or someone in your personal life has had an important role in your journey?

Kamla Ahluwalia

I would like to group all of my students into one big category because I think that listening to them has made me better.  Like, the students who take the time to write thoughtful feedback and thoughtful evaluations of you and of your course, they get incorporated all the time to make it better. And being able to read their faces and the questions they ask...it's like sometimes I will look out and I'm like, ‘nobody's with me.’ This is my fault, right? Like, I need to go and fix something here.

So, they have taught me so much about how people learn and what people need and that so many people are so different and need all these different things. But you can work it out. You can figure it out. So, I would say in terms of my role as an educator, it's all of my students combined over all the years have got me to this point and I thank them for it. And an extra special thanks to my physician assistant students who I was told were the ones who nominated me for this role. So extra thanks to my PAs. They're the best.

Lindsey Smith

I love that you gave your students a shout out and how much you've clearly learned from them, too. It's only fitting that we end here because this podcast started with a nomination from your students. It really does come full circle.

Kamla, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a wonderful conversation, and congratulations again on this well-deserved recognition.

Kamla Ahluwalia

Yes, thank you. Thank you very much.

Lindsey Smith

And that does it for today's episode. It's been a privilege hearing about Kamla's work and the impact she's having on her students and broader anatomy and physiology community.

To our listeners, if today's conversation inspired you, we'd love to hear from you. And if you have an educator who is making a difference in your life, be sure to thank them. To learn more about the 2026 Faculty Awards, visit https://studenthub.elsevier.com/en/2026-raise-the-line-faculty-awards/

I'm Lindsey Smith. Thanks for checking out today's show. Remember to do your part to raise a line and strengthen the healthcare system. We're all in this together.