Women in Medicine

ELAM strengthens leadership skills

For Hope Haefner (M.D. 1985), her year as a fellow in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women was an opportunity to network and discuss topics from mentoring to financial management. Denise Tate, Ph.D., appreciated the chance to sharpen her negotiating skills, polish her public speaking and prepare to serve as a role model for junior faculty.

"The ELAM program was very valuable to me," says Tate, associate professor and director of research in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and director of the U-M's Model Spinal Cord Injury Care System. "It gave me the leadership skills I needed to occupy positions of greater responsibility — administrative skills, financial skills, preparation in personnel management."

"It's an amazing program," adds Haefner, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the U-M Center for Vulvar Diseases. "It really reinforced my institutional commitment. Hearing people talk about their departments and institutions made me realize how strong we are, but how we can still improve."

The competitive fellowship program, which selects about 40 participants each year, helps mid-career women faculty at academic medical centers prepare for leadership roles. While U.S. medical and dental schools are attracting increasing numbers of female students, women are still rare in senior academic administrative positions. Of the nation's 125 medical schools, only seven have women as deans; three women (one of whom is an ELAM alumna) serve as deans at the 55 U.S. dental schools.

The effects of this imbalance spill out into society, ELAM administrators believe. Fewer women heading academic medical centers mean less emphasis on women's health issues, they assert. ELAM aims to rectify the imbalance by offering training in the skills, perspectives and knowledge that managers need and by focusing on issues of special concern to women leaders.

The program includes two one-week sessions of intensive study in the Philadelphia area, attendance at the Association of American Medical Colleges annual meeting, independent assignments and an institutional project. The spring session concludes with a two-day forum, attended by deans of the fellows' institutions.

"We are heavily committed to seeing women advance into leadership in academic medicine," says Allen Lichter (M.D. 1972), dean of the U-M Medical School, "and we recognize that this needs to happen not merely by accident, but by design. ELAM is one of the strongest programs in the country for introducing women to the issues of academic medicine and helping them build the skills needed to advance their careers."

ELAM is sponsored by the Institute for Women's Health at MCP Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, with support from the U-M Medical School, the School of Dentistry and the Office of the Provost. In addition to Haefner and Tate, two other U-M medical and dental faculty women have participated in the ELAM program. They are Lisa Tedesco, Ph.D., vice president and secretary of the U-M, interim provost and a professor in the School of Dentistry; and Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology in the Medical School.

-Nancy Ross-Flanigan

Used with permission of University Record.