Since my tenure as the new Dean of WMed began on May 3, I have been able to hit the ground running, thanks in no small part to the extraordinary support of the medical school community and the Kalamazoo community that my husband and I are proud to now call home.
As this new journey begins for me, I am intently focused on two things – listening and learning to gain a full understanding of the successes and opportunities that exist here at WMed.Ìý
As part of that process, I am relying on the feedback of faculty, residents, students, and staff at the medical school, and asking of them to look inward to understand what inspires each of them to do what they do – day in and day out – to be a part of making this institution successful.
I want all of us to reflect and think constantly about the people we serve, to strive to get to a point where everyone who is part of the inner workings of WMed, regardless of their role, knows what drives them and why they are here. In my short time at WMed, the interactions and engagement I’ve had around this goal have fostered really rich conversations and I am so grateful to those who have taken the time to share what’s on their minds.
To those that we serve in the Kalamazoo area and the other communities that make up Southwest Michigan, I ask you this – what is it that you want out of WMed?
The answers to these questions and these continuing conversations, I believe, will help us to see the common thread we all share. They will push us forward and help us to have even greater successes as we celebrate WMed’s first decade and look forward to how the medical school can be a force for good and positive community change in the next 10 years.
As we celebrate and look ahead, it is also important to know that we are at a critical juncture in our history as a one of the nation’s newer medical schools. The hard work of establishing WMed over the last decade has given way to a new era where we must look make our mark in healthcare, find our place among the nation’s other medical schools, and strive to positively impact the health of the Kalamazoo community and beyond.Ìý
We are well-positioned to embrace what is being asked of us, and we are also ready take on a critical task with which many other medical schools in the U.S. struggle – creating a physician and scientist workforce that reflects the people that we serve by really engaging in the work of diversity and inclusion.
While this may, at times, seem daunting, I am confident that we will be successful. My many years as a physician and leader in academic medicine have prepared me for this moment and I look forward to partnering with our WMedÌý team, our Kalamazoo community partners, and Southwest Michigan as a whole, to see this vision become reality, to ensure that WMed is a beacon for medical education, patient care, research, and diversity and inclusiveness – both locally and nationally.
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