left to right: Elizabeth Gaughan, MD, Karen Ballen, MD, Sue Pollart, MD, Meg Keeley, MD, Ann Kellams, MD, Wendy Horton, PharmD, and Melina Kibbe, MD
Launched just shy of thirty years ago, ELAM®, the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® program, is a year-long part-time fellowship for women faculty in schools of medicine, dentistry, public health and pharmacy. ELAM’s program develops the professional and personal skills required to lead in today’s complex health care environment, with special attention to the unique challenges facing women. More than 1,000 ELAM alumnae hold leadership positions in institutions around the world and 75% of women deans of medical schools, including Dean Melina Kibbe, ELAM ’12, are alumnae of ELAM. In 2022, ELAM launched a partner program, Executive Leadership in Healthcare (ELH) to focus on the unique needs of aspiring executive leaders in health care.
This month, Senior Associate Dean for Education Meg Keeley, MD, and Vice Chair of Pediatrics Ann Kellams, MD, in the Department of Pediatrics completed the ELAM fellowship. Elizabeth Gaughan, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine, completed the ELH fellowship. As a requirement for graduation, each completed an Institutional Action Project (IAP), mentored by their institutional colleagues and leaders. The IAP, a key activity in both programs, expand the fellow’s leadership skills and institutional visibility through an institutional initiative that aligns with the fellow’s experience and expertise and that meets an organizational goal or need. Fellows present their IAP on the penultimate date of the fellowship at the Leaders’ Forum, a gathering of the deans and health care leaders sponsoring this year’s 140+ member fellowship class. Melina Kibbe, MD, dean of UVA School of Medicine, and Wendy Horton, PharmD, CEO of UVA Health University Medical Center, were among the leaders present to support the UVA Health fellows and connect with academic medicine leaders from across the country. Dean Kibbe received a special acknowledgement from the Leaders’ Forum keynote speaker, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, JAMA editor-in-chief, who credited Dean Kibbe, editor-in-chief of JAMA Surgery, for the journal’s first place ranking among all surgery journals.
Karen Ballen, MD, ELAM ’20, chief of the division of hematology/oncology, and the medical director of the stem cell transplantation program at UVA Cancer Center, leads a group of six current ELAM fellows as a learning community advisor and was in attendance at the Leader’s Forum.
Sue Pollart, MD, (center) receives the Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award.
Also at the Leaders’ Forum, Susan M. Pollart, MD, ELAM ’17, received the second annual Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award. The Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award recognizes an individual or individuals who have made a significant and positive impact on the ELAM/ELH community. Recipients demonstrate professionalism, commitment and unwavering dedication to fellows, ELUMs, faculty, staff and/or other community members, inspiring others to use their talents and energy to advance the ELAM/ELH program and make a difference in achieving gender equity in academic medicine and/or hospital systems
Filed Under: Faculty, Honors & Awards