By Linda J. Kobert Photographs by Jackson Smith
GROWING The
Leadership in Academic Matters Program
S
usan Pollart, MD, MS, (MD '82, Res '85, MS'88) doesn't know exactly what it was about her leadership potential that attracted
her department chair's attention in 2004. In her role as an associate professor in the School of Medicine and a family practice clinician, Pollart sat on committees, led meetings and served in other leadership roles. And she'd caught the eye of leaders at the school, including Sharon Hostler, MD.
Having recently been appointed as senior asso- ciate dean for faculty development, Hostler had been charged by then SOM dean Arthur "Tim" Garson, Jr., MD, MPH, to develop programs that would address issues beyond academic advance- ment and tenure, programs that would more ad- equately support scientists who teach, programs
to recruit and retain the best and the brightest faculty members. "When I conceptualized faculty development,
I saw it as Erickson would, as the lifecycle of facul- ty in academic medicine," Hostler, a pediatrician, said. Out of that model, she designed several pro- grams around the needs of faculty members at various stages in their careers. Among these programs was an innovative new initiative designed for outstanding mid-career fac- ulty who were recognized experts in their own discipline and who were at the point where they were ready to engage in institutional leadership. Started in 2004 and dubbed Leadership in Aca- demic Medicine (LAM), the program was a way of cultivating leaders within the SOM who could go on to become the next department chairs.
our own
Vitals Fall 2011
23
