February 3, 2023

Dear School of Medicine Community,

Congratulations University of Maryland School of Medicine on a great start to 2023! We are energized by the formal launch of two new major Institutes, the University of Maryland - Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) and the University of Maryland - Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND)! I am also so proud of and impressed with all the hard work our physicians and care workers do every day, especially in our children’s hospital and ERs, taking care of children with COVID-19, RSV, and influenza, and all our health care teams who tirelessly work every day and every night to care for our patients.

I personally enjoyed opening my January 15 hard-copy edition of the New England Journal of Medicine and reading the lead article “Aspirin or Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin for Thromboprophylaxis after a Fracture” led by our own Drs. Bob O’Toole, Deborah Stein, Nathan O’Hara, Gerard Slobogean, and other leaders at the University of Maryland School of Medicine!

Updates on leadership

This month, a new member of my leadership team joins us from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Wonder Drake will serve as our Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Director of our new Center of Excellence dedicated to sarcoidosis, a disease of unknown origin that primarily affects African Americans in the U.S. and can cause lung damage, skin rashes, eye, heart and neurological disease and can affect almost every organ of the body. At Vanderbilt, Dr. Drake served as a Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Infectious Diseases and the inaugural Director of the Sarcoidosis Center of Excellence. Dr. Drake has a particular interest in mentoring and training physician faculty in research, especially faculty from groups underrepresented in medicine. She will partner with programs such as the Center for Advanced Research Training (CARTI) and the Innovation and Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program to further enhance efforts in this area.

With Dr. Dudley Strickland stepping down from leading the Graduate Program in Life Sciences (GPILS), we welcome new leadership for GPILS from Dr. Jessica Mong, who has been named Assistant Dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. I want to congratulate both Dr. Strickland and Dr. Mong for their hard work and commitment to the School of Medicine. 

Another retirement I would be remiss not to mention is that of Dr. Terry Rogers, Associate Dean for Research Development and Administration and Chief Conflict of Interest Officer. I will share that I begged him to stay on for six months after his goal retirement date as his services have been so vital to our collective success. Dr. Rogers has been a part of the School of Medicine family for 42 years. He began as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and his administrative contributions began with his leadership of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), which he directed for 16 years. Dr. Rogers became Executive Director of the Office of Research Affairs in 2014, and quickly developed that office into an excellent resource to assist faculty in expanding collaborative, innovative research leading to an increased number of novel competitive grant applications. He was promoted to Associate Dean in 2018.

Dr. Rogers has been an excellent leader for the SOM research community for the past nine years, and a wonderful friend and colleague for all his 42 years here at the SOM. We wish him and his wife, Diane, all the best on this well-deserved retirement.

Upcoming important celebrations

I speak often on how much diversity, equity, and inclusion in an academic medical center matter. As such, I am proud to host my first-ever Celebrating Diversity gala later this month on February 25, 2023, at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel starting at 6:30 p.m. I’m also honored to announce that the Master of Ceremonies for this special event will be my close friend and colleague, Dr. Esa Davis. Dr. Davis is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Tobacco Treatment Service; Director of the Career Education and Enhancement for Health Care Research Diversity Program; Director of the TRANSFORM Program; and Co-Director of the Clinical and Translational Science KL2 Scholars Program at UPSOM. She is also a member of the prestigious U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce. 

We are in for a real treat with Dr. Davis’ participation in our diversity gala! Please consider purchasing a ticket to support the SOM’s equity and inclusion initiatives. I look forward to presenting the Dean’s Faculty and Alumni Awards for Diversity and Inclusion at this event.

Professional development

Our Medical Education Leadership Academy (MELA) offers many opportunities to our faculty for career development, including a spring and a fall Medical Education Day. I want to strongly encourage all faculty to attend, and chairs to support, these two half-day events, which include a keynote speaker, workshops, and a networking reception with awards and/or posters. These activities help to create an environment in which our diverse community can excel in academic medicine, and I want as many people as possible to take advantage of the access MELA offers. Please mark your calendars for the spring Medical Education Day on April 20, 2023.

With enthusiasm and commitment,