The Path to Department Chair: Arriving and Thriving

The environment at Hopkins, Dr. Agrawal recalled, featured an emphasis and mentoring around research. “It was understood that this was going to be your career trajectory. It was encouraged and inculcated, even during residency,” she said. “So, when I started as faculty at Hopkins, I had a couple of grants. I was able to apply for NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding, which I received. It was not anything distinctive, because everyone does it there.” Thus, by the time Dr. Agrawal was promoted to professor, she was one of the few people in the country who had a portfolio that included clinical practice and NIH funding— factors that are pertinent when being considered for department leadership.

Mentors and Role Models

It is one thing to be well educated, highly skilled, and professionally experienced; it is quite another to evolve into a viable candidate for leadership. In that regard, positive mentors and role models are essential on the journey to chair.

Dr. Agrawal stressed the impact of her mentors at Hopkins, especially department chair Lloyd Minor, MD, who served in that role from 2003 to 2009, and who is currently dean of Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. “Dr. Minor showed me that you could use that role to have a positive impact on people’s career development by giving them opportunities they might not otherwise have pursued, or even seen in themselves,” she said. “That had a profound impact on me.”

“Probably my No. 1 role model was Robert Kern, MD, chair at Northwestern [Feinberg School of Medicine], where I did my residency,” Dr. Chandra said. “He had a very sharp upward trajectory not only to leadership, but also in integrating clinical practice with translational research. I saw some of the things he did to advance the department and began to realize how different pieces fit together, as well as the organizational and institutional politics—things I wouldn’t have understood on my own if he hadn’t taken the time to explain his decisions and the reasons behind them.”

“I learned different things from different people,” Dr. Lin said. “There was nobody who really looked like me who would be available to be my role model, but I learned so much from many of the leaders I had the chance to work with. My first boss, Horst (Ron) Konrad, MD, who hired me at SIU, told me to pay attention not only to my career but to the importance of my family. This was 1999, so he was progressive for the time. Now I think about whether my faculty is having enough time for their families and relationships. It’s hard for people to be productive at work if they’re missed at home.” Dr. Lin’s first mentor at Hopkins, Charlie [Charles W.] Cummings, MD, “had a magic about him. If you were talking to him, you felt like you were the most special person in the world,” she said. “What I took from that is that people want to be recognized and treated as important members of the team.” Like Dr. Agrawal, Dr. Lin cited Lloyd Minor, MD, as a major influence on her professional growth. “I saw how he moved people through change, gave them the right opportunities to grow,” she said. “Also, he really thought about what kind of leader he was and, therefore, what type of team he needed.”