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A Fond Farewell to the University of Rochester
Dr. David Guzick, M.D., Ph.D.
May 28, 2009
I write this final newsletter with mixed emotions. For me, for my wife, Donna, and for my children, Ben and Andrew, the past 14 years in Rochester have been the best years of our lives. And yet, as of July 1, Donna and I will be taking new positions at the University of Florida, as announced today, and our family will be moving to Gainesville.
This newsletter has become my central means of communicating to the broad community of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, so I thought it would be best to let you know about my family’s decision through this newsletter. Indeed, the newsletter has become my most “natural” method of communication to the broad SMD community, short of a personal conversation with each one of you. In this vein, I also want to reflect on the newsletter itself, since the very writing of this final newsletter is part of the emotional closure that I must achieve.
First, the newsletter. Soon after becoming dean, having stepped out of my particular corner of the medical center that involved women’s health care generally and reproductive endocrinology in particular, I became aware of the extraordinary work across all fields and disciplines that is taking place throughout the labyrinth of a building that comprises the main campus of our medical center. I would come home and tell Donna about all of this amazing work, much of which I had no idea was going on. “If you don’t know about it,” Donna said, “and if I don’t know about it, maybe you should tell people in some sort of fireside chat.” After thinking about the format, I thought that a regular communication sent out by email might work best. The Dean’s Newsletter was born.
As I thought about how to approach the newsletter, I realized that the achievements, awards, and other news around the medical school and medical center are comprehensively reported by our Public Relations office, under the capable leadership of Teri D’Agostino. I thought I could make a difference by exploring a topic in more depth, showcasing some of our extraordinarily talented individuals, and perhaps providing perspective based on my experience as a clinician, investigator, educator and administrator. As well, there are milestone events throughout the year in which important words are spoken and enjoyed by those in attendance (such as our recent Commencement), but which are not generally transmitted to the broad SMD community. I also thought that these carefully chosen words about broad aspects of medicine and science would be of general interest to the SMD community, and therefore worth publishing in the newsletter.
Across time, newsletter readers have come to include alumni, faculty, students (medical and graduate), residents and fellows, staff, URMC Board members, and a host of individuals who have become interested in the affairs of the School without a formal connection. I have received consistent, and quite voluminous, feedback about the newsletters, sometimes thanking me for highlighting a particular program or event, sometimes contesting my position on a particular topic, and sometimes adding information about which I was unaware. All of this feedback has been greatly appreciated, and has no doubt led to improvements in the newsletters across time.
The focus of these newsletters has been on the work and lives of others at the medical school, but I now find myself in a position where the final few paragraphs of this final newsletter will be about my family and me, and our decision to move to Gainesville.
As of July 1, 2009, I will become the Senior Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Florida, and President of the UF&Shands Health Care System. In the latter role, I will be the Chairman of the Board of Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics, Inc. My task will be to integrate a health care delivery system with a health sciences center that includes six colleges—Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Public Health and Health Professions, Veterinary Medicine, and Pharmacy. The hospital and colleges are located in contiguous buildings on the main campus of the University of Florida.
My wife, Donna Giles, will be appointed Professor of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida. She will continue the same type of work she is doing in Rochester. Donna spent most of her career studying depression, using EEG sleep markers to understand its familial associations, genetics, and co-morbidities. About four years ago, when our two boys were entering high school, she decided to let her R01 grants lapse to spend more time with Ben and Andrew. She reduced her effort and focused on mentoring junior faculty in developing research careers. Donna and I are grateful to Eric Caine, M.D., Chair of Psychiatry, for his unflagging support of Donna’s mentoring career, which she has found extremely satisfying.
Our older son, Giles Benjamin Guzick, is completing his freshman year at Carleton College, and his first tennis season there. Our younger son, Andrew Giles Guzick, is thinking about what he will say as an elected High School student Commencement Speaker, and will join Vassar and its tennis team as a freshman in the Fall. Andrew and Ben were four and five years old when we moved to Rochester. Rochester is their home, a community they genuinely love, and they will always “be” from Rochester.
Rochester is a great city, and the University of Rochester is a superb University. It is said about people that their weaknesses are often their strengths taken to an extreme. The same can be said for many of our great cities, where large numbers of individuals living in close quarters generate sophistication, high energy and excitement. When the numbers of people become too large, however, and the quarters become too close, the attractive features can take a back seat to noise, traffic, expense, rudeness, and anonymity. As a medium-sized community, despite limited resources, Rochester strikes an excellent balance between the sophistication of a larger city and the overall livability of a small town. Donna and I have been especially taken with the high level of education and competence of its people, easy access to programs that nurture children’s talents in almost any area (in the case of our children, the truly extraordinary experience with tennis and chess has become synonymous with Rochester), the convenience of getting from A to B (no matter where those points may be) in less than 20 minutes, world-class music and art with no concerns about tickets or parking, and, for me, easy access to great golf courses.
During my 14 years in Rochester, the University and its medical center have undergone a transformation. In 1995, under President Tom Jackson, the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering was transformed by his bold and successfully executed Rochester Renaissance Plan that focused on quality, and the medical campus was transformed by his decision to integrate the medical school, nursing school and hospital under a strong, unified leadership structure. What we now know as the University of Rochester Medical Center, in terms of its functioning as a fully integrated academic health center, was born at that time under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Jay Stein, M.D., in the role of Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and Medical Center C.E.O. Joel Seligman, who became the University’s 10th President in 2005, is building on these transformative events with truly extraordinary energy, commitment and expertise. President Seligman is making substantial progress in each of the areas that he and the Trustees defined as important at the time of his appointment: growing University resources, including endowment, with a focus on advancement; raising the profile of the University so that its visibility and recognition match its achievements; enhancing the role of the University in the community, especially in the areas of economic development and social engagement; fostering diversity in the University’s faculty, staff and student body; creating and implementing an overall strategic plan for the University, including a master facilities plan; and addressing our budget challenges. The President’s motto is “Aim high.” His enthusiasm, optimism and plain hard work have led to raising the bar across the entire University and have elevated all of us in the process.
During these 14 years, I have personally undergone a transformation as well. First as Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1995-2002, and since then as dean, I have grown enormously. No doubt, I have learned some things strictly from experience, but most of what I have learned has been the result of being surrounded by an amazingly talented and insightful group of colleagues.
When I arrived as Chair of Ob-Gyn in 1995, both full-time faculty and community-based part-time faculty were enormously patient with me, and generous in their advice and insights, as we worked together to advance a partnership model between the full-time specialists and part-time generalists, integrate Highland Hospital as an integral part of Ob-Gyn at URMC, extend the reach of the residency from a clinical program that drew regionally to one with a national, academic profile, and create a research culture in the department that attracted increased NIH support.
When Dr. Stein appointed me as Dean, I was truly a babe in the woods with regards to the broad responsibilities involved. Instead of focusing on a single department and its faculty, residents and staff, I was now being asked to look across the needs and opportunities of more than 30 departments and centers. I also quickly realized that there were new constituencies such as students, alumni and Board members, as well as important links to the external environment through advancement, legal considerations, technology and economic development, communications, strategic planning and government relations. Whatever success I have had in navigating these waters has been due to a blend of mentorship from the three Medical Center CEOs with whom I have had the privilege to work – Jay Stein, M.D., Mac Evarts, M.D., and Brad Berk, M.D., Ph.D. – a wonderful partnership with Steve Goldstein, Kathy Parrinello, Cindy Becker and others at Strong Memorial and Highland Hospitals, lessons learned about medical center and medical school finance from Mike Goonan and Bill Passalacqua, and the insights and warm colleagueship shared with me by members of the Medical Center Executive team, department chairs, center directors, associate deans, faculty members and administrative staff responsible for the “external” links noted above.
One of the ways in which I am resolving the mixed emotions of this career move is the realization that, while my family and I will no longer be living in Rochester, we simply cannot leave behind the many relationships we have forged here. Donna, Ben, Andrew and I will remain committed to Rochester. We plan on taking summer vacation here, return for events, and continue our philanthropic commitments to the University and community.
The School of Medicine and Dentistry is truly a special place, as all of you know well, with a history of pivotal contributions to medical education, patient care and research. It remains one of the finest medical schools in the nation with a unique blend of scientific rigor and humanism, and a special tradition of collegiality and collaboration. The talent and commitment of our leadership, faculty, students and staff not only have helped us to achieve much together over the seven years that I have been privileged to be your dean, but also will ensure a vibrant, dynamic future.Meliora,
David S. Guzick, MD, PhD
Dean, School of Medicine and Dentistry
University of Rochester
Dean's Newsletter
Posted May 28, 2009:
A Fond Farewell to the University of Rochester
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