CAME Mid-Career Achievement Award, PhD: This award recognizes a CAME member who is mid-career (i.e., 10-20 years since their first faculty appointment) and who demonstrates a continued pattern of meaningful contribution to Health Professions Education. CAME is delighted to present the 2026 CAME Mid-Career Achievement Award, PhD, to Dr. Rola Ajjawi, University of British Columbia.
Dr. Rola Ajjawi is a Professor of Medical Education Research. She studied physiotherapy and became a clinical teacher before completing a PhD in health professions education examining how clinical reasoning is learned and communicated in practice. She leads several programs of research into feedback and workplace learning cultures, student failure and success, and latterly belonging and well-being in health professions education. Her research has attracted over $3.8 million in funding. Rola became Editor-in-chief of the journal Medical Education in 2026 and chairs the International Association for Health Professions Education (AMEE) Research Committee. She was awarded a Karolinska Institutet Fellowship in 2021 for excellence in medical education research. Dr. Ajjawi’s research seeks to create learning environments that support health professional trainees to succeed. She is interested particularly in the messiness of practice and workplace learning, examining how supervision can be embedded into clinical practices, how feedback processes unfold, and how to create equitable assessment in the workplace. Her research is strongly theoretical, qualitative and highly relational as she strives to reveal the taken for granted assumptions about, and hidden complexities of, practice.