-Tom Peters
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Celebrating Your Service…
We had our biannual faculty and staff recognition event this week and it was really glorious to take a few moments to celebrate your service. Our medical school had quite a distinguished list of honorees per always, folks such as our Dr. Sharad Ghamande, celebrating 15 years of helping women and their families battle and beat gynecologic cancers. Our Helen Smith, administrative assistant in our Section of Gastroenterology & Hepatology where she is ever so consistently warm and helpful, was honored for 10 years of service. Our Admissions Counselor Jacquelyn Dogan, who is such a terrific representative for our medical school with prospective students (or anyone), was honored for her five years of service. Seriously, with folks such as them and you, what student, resident, staff, and faculty member would not want to be part of Georgia’s medical school. Our sincere congratulations and thanks to you all. Our thanks as well to Human Resources for making these cool events happen.
Making the World Better…
We talk a lot about leadership around these parts and the great news is we have so many great leaders, not by their titles necessarily, but by their instinctive desire to make things better. Sometimes, we also are fortunate enough to help inspire and educate the next generation of leaders. Most of you likely know that the Student National Medical Association is a pretty terrific group that is doing just that. They are committed to supporting underrepresented minority medical students, underserved communities and increasing the number of overall great docs. Each year as the new leadership of the SNMA Chapters across the nation come on board, SNMA’s 10 regions have leadership meetings to help ensure the continued success of these emerging leaders and this awesome association. Well this year, for the first time, from what we hear, our medical school was privileged to host the Regional Leadership Institute for Region IV.
One Student at a Time…
Region IV of the SNMA includes medical schools from throughout Georgia as well as South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico so we definitely had some stiff competition in bringing this meeting here. But our MCG Chapter Co-Presidents Danielle Whittaker and Thomas Hodo were instrumental in getting these amazing young leaders to Augusta and Amber Berry, a second-year student and the program chair, ensured the excellent meeting content when they arrived. We also are proud to share that part of the content was keynote speaker Dr. Joseph Hobbs, a 1974 graduate of our school and no doubt a leader here and in our nation, who talked with the students about developing leadership skills to be successful in their goals of promoting health care advocacy, eliminating disparities and securing social justice. We frankly can’t think of too many better messengers or messages for this young group of future physicians. Our absolute thanks to the Office of Student and Multicultural Affairs for their support of our SNMA chapter and so much more.
Working with Your Colleagues… In the Community
Another first was also held recently in these parts with a first-time leadership program at the Richmond County Medical Society, which our Dr. Jim Rawson pulled together. No doubt the timing was excellent with the dynamic and sometimes downright concerning environment that medical schools, hospitals, and health care providers find themselves in. The overall message was that quality improvement and leadership are essential tools for the 21stcentury physician, and really for 21st century everything. Dr. Doug Patten, who was the CMO of our fabulous colleagues at Phoebe Putney and is now doing the same great job for the Georgia Hospital Association, tried to help us answer the eternal question: Can we do more with less? Our Dr. Kevin Dellsperger looked at how/can you measure quality. Angie Snyder with the Georgia Health Policy Center gave the keynote about just how healthy is our state. You get the idea. A super relevant event. It was so great to have our faculty, residents, community physicians and even one medical student, Bhavi Patel, sharing this time and information. You know, we have a long history with the Richmond County Medical Society, which, alongside our founder, Dr. Milton Antony, took a leadership role in the early 1800s in petitioning the Georgia General Assembly to support what would become the Medical Academy of Georgia. It’s just terrific that the relationship is still strong today.
Bringing People Together… For the Better
While we are on a leadership role, our Dr. Laura Mulloy is a terrific mentor for many and certainly that includes the MCG Chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association. She is the group’s advisor and just hosted its fall event. It was, by all accounts, the biggest and best ever (or at least in the seven years Dr. Mulloy has been hosting it). There were 100 first- and second-year students and more than 20 faculty, fellows, and residents. All had an absolutely great time just visiting as well as sharing knowledge on important topics like school/work/life balance, choosing the best career path and how volunteering in community clinics helps freshmen and sophomores get a better sense of being a doctor as it provides invaluable service to the citizens of this great community we call home. The party was actually at Dr. Mulloy’s house – and we hear she is one terrific party thrower – but we also have it from a reliable source that three of our students were the real “dream team” of this event. They include AMWA President Madison Pumphrey along with Lindsey Megow and Kristine Sufcak. Thank you all for your leadership roles in AMWA, the oldest multispecialty organization dedicated to advancing women in medicine and improving women’s health.
Giving Your Time and Money… For a Cause That Matters
A brief follow up on last weekend’s 30th annual Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Celebration live from our children’s hospital lobby and on WRDW-TV. That amazing event along with many other amazing events over the course of the last dozen months enabled us to fly right over the $1 million mark for funds raised this year. So many worked so hard, both at our hospital, in our community, and at Channel 12 to raise – definitely need a drumroll here – $1,356,058 for services and programs for children and their families at our children’s hospital. We want to thank folks such as Volunteer Pam Wilkins who has been there since the beginning for children. We thank our many business sponsors, such as Kroger and Costco and the many, many individual donors who regularly open their hearts to children. As we have said so often, this size effort really does take a village and ours is absolutely the best ever. Thank you all so, so much for 30 years of this enthusiastic effort for our youngest patients.
And Putting Your Enthusiasm and Events… Out There
And finally today, while it may not be the most compelling topic, it is a pretty important one. We are talking about the Campus Calendar! Thanks to hard work by the GRU Web Team in the Division of Communications and Marketing, this is now relatively easy to use (or at least for our web publishers to use!). We should really say “calendars” because there is now one for events and one for academics, see http://calendar.gru.edu/, and that is one big change that should help avoid confusion. To ensure dates for things like the first day of class are correct, all submissions to the academic calendar must go to the registrar at registrar@gru.edu. The events calendar has some pretty cool changes as well, like if you go to the Fall Injury Clinic posting for tomorrow, you can also check out the full schedule for that clinic through November 7. Web publishers across our medical school have been trained on this events calendar but, again, we can all add info to that. We encourage you to do just that. If we all put our info out there, the calendar will become a terrific go-to source not for just what is happening but to help ensure that major events don’t happen at the same time! Eureka!
Upcoming Events
Sept. 9 – The Educational Innovation Institute, or EII, hosts Career Development 101, 1:15-4:30PM in the Greenblatt Library, Room AB 108, on the Health Sciences Campus, for faculty with primarily clinical and teaching responsibilities. This faculty orientation event offers practical suggestions and resources on teaching, promotion and research. RSVP to EDI@GRU.eduby Aug. 26. Participation fulfills the Preparing to Teach expectation for teaching faculty.
Sept 9 – The university’s Annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit, “Connecting Awareness to Action,” 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center. Keynote speaker CNN Commentator Marc Lamont will discuss “Building Community in an Hours of Chaos: Progress in the Age of Obama.” For a complete schedule and registration visit gru.edu/diversity/summit/.
Sept. 11 – The GRU Faculty Club hosts the academic year’s first after-hours social gathering at 5:30 p.m., Mi Rancho Mexican Restaurant, 3064 Washington Road.
Sept. 12 – GRU Day of Service, http://calendar.gru.edu/event/day-of-service-2015.
Sept. 12 – MCG Alumni Association Regional Reception in Augusta, 6 p.m., Augusta Marriott.
Sept. 13 – MCG Alumni Association Board Meeting, Harrison Commons, 9:30 a.m.
Sept. 14 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., JSAC Ballroom, Summerville Campus.
Sept. 15 – EII in collaboration with the GRU Cancer Center hosts, Career Development 101 for Early Career Investigators, 8:00AM – 12:30PM in Cancer Research Building, Room CN 1102, on the Health Sciences Campus. The primary goals are to orient early career investigators to the multiple, research-related resources on campus, provide practical career development strategies, and foster connections among research faculty. RSVP to Lisa Middleton by Aug. 26.
Sept. 17 – University Senate Fall Assembly/New Faculty Welcome, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Alumni Center Ballrooms, Health Sciences Campus.
Sept. 21 – Medical Scholars Research Symposium, Harrison Commons, 11 a.m.
Oct. 5 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., EC-1222, Health Sciences Campus.
Oct. 8 – MCG Alumni Association Regional Reception in Albany, Doublegate Country Club, 6 p.m.
Oct. 8, 9 – Patient- and Family-Centered Care Annual Conference with keynote Allison Massari, an in-demand speaker, entrepreneur, executive coach, and interdisciplinary artist. The conference will be held from 1-5 p.m. Oct. 8 and 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 9 in the Lee Auditorium. For more information call 706-721-7322, email pfcc@gru.edu and to register go to http://www.grhealth.org/patient-family-centered-care/9th-annual-pfcc-conference-2015. For live streaming, please visit: http://www.gru.edu/stream/.
Oct. 10 – White Coat Ceremony, Bell Auditorium, 3 p.m.
Oct. 13 – MCG Alumni Association Regional Reception in Rome, Coosa Country Club, 6 p.m.
Oct. 15 – MCG Alumni Association Regional Reception in Savannah, Home of Dr. and Mrs. Melvin and Roberta Kamine-Haysman, 6 p.m.
Oct. 27 – Town Hall meeting with students, noon-1 p.m., Harrison Commons, GB 1220A.
Oct. 29 – MCG Alumni Association Regional Reception in Valdosta, Valdosta Country Club, 6 p.m.
Nov. 2 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., JSAC Ballroom, Summerville Campus.
Nov. 13 – Body Donation Memorial Service, 1 p.m., Lee Auditorium.
Dec. 7 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., EC-1222, Health Sciences Campus.
Jan. 11 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., JSAC Ballroom, Summerville Campus.
Jan. 12 – Town Hall meeting with students, noon-1 p.m., Harrison Commons, GB 1220A.
Feb. 1 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., EC-1222, Health Sciences Campus.
Feb. 25 – MCG Alumni Association Board Meeting, Macon, Idle Hour Country Club, 3:30 p.m.
March 7 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., JSAC Ballroom, Summerville Campus.
March 18 – Match Day, location TBD!
April 11 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., EC-1222, Health Sciences Campus.
April 15 – MCG Alumni Association sponsors the Raft Debate. More to come.
April 29-May 1 – Alumni Weekend
May 12 – Hooding 2016, location and time TBD.
Enjoy this last weekend of August 2015!