MESSAGE FROM ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ONLINE EDUCATION AND ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT
Happy new year! In this first issue of Heartbeats for 2021, let me review progress and point to next steps in the Health Sciences Strategic Plan 2020-2023. Last December, we completed a successful first year and achieved all our goals, despite challenges presented by COVID. So give yourself a big pat on the back! We kicked the initiative off with a great volunteer event that brought us together as a division to help impact worldwide hunger. Then, we went to work on seven strategic initiatives shaped across our plan’s focus areas: Investing in People, Living Our Social Mission, Influencing Health Professions Education, Policy, and Practice; and Catalyzing Innovation and Entrepreneurism. Even during a pandemic, it is easy to see the commitment of our faculty, staff, and students and inspiring to see the impact of our collective work. Exciting to me is that our strategic plan is getting noticed at SMHS and GW.
HS teams are already hard at work for a successful second year. Rather than being a roadmap, our plan is more of a North Star that constantly reminds us of what we can accomplish together through collaboration, innovation, and caring for the communities we serve. The journey we take, however, is ours to choose and knowing sometimes life will put unexpected barriers and opportunities in our way. In the near future, I will share a new tracking tool for our strategic initiatives to record our progress and evaluate our impact. The tool incorporates engaging visuals so everyone can follow the progress as we successfully live our mission and work toward making our vision a reality. Here’s to an exciting 2021!
--Amy King, MDE, PMP
Assistant Dean
Online Education and Enrollment Management
PEOPLE
HAIL TO THE CHIEF. Kevin O’Connor of HS Administration officially joined another administration last week: President Joe Biden has commissioned O’Connor as Physician to the President. O’Connor's service to the White House is possible through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act and an agreement between GW and the U.S Navy. O'Connor is an associate professor in the Department of Health, Human Function and Rehabilitation Sciences and senior medical advisor for HS. Formerly, he served as associate professor of medicine, founding director of the Center for Executive Medicine (GW Medical Faculty Associates) and medical director of International and Diplomatic Affairs (GW Hospital). O’Connor has been Biden’s physician since 2009, when he was appointed Physician to the Vice President. Before joining the White House, O’Connor served 22 years in the Army, including tours of duty with the 82nd Airborne Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, and United States Army Special Operations Command. He retired from the military following the Obama administration and continued as Biden’s doctor when he joined GW.
O’Connor talked with us about his White House role:
Q. What does your new job entail?
A. “The Physician to the President is responsible for all aspects of the health and wellness of the First Family. As such, I will continue to be their family doctor for primary care concerns. Additionally, together with the talented members of the White House Medical Unit, we will provide emergency medical planning and coverage, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, anywhere in the world. The White House Medical Unit also provides comprehensive care for the Second Family and primary care support for the President's Cabinet.”
Q. What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
A. “I believe that this is going to be a very consequential administration. The nation is more divided than ever and we're combatting a pandemic. At the end of the day, given an opportunity to help a president - any president, address that, even in a small way ... well, if your president asks you to serve, you serve. The fact that I have cared for the Biden family for a dozen years already, and that I have grown to care a great deal for them personally - those are just bonuses.”
“Don't get me wrong, every morning that one walks into the White House does, and should, give you a momentary zap of awe and humility. There are quite a few trappings which come with serving in this capacity. But of those whom much is given, much is expected ... I never lose sight of that, not for one second. We're all there to serve for a brief period of time, and we are stewards of an institution. Nothing there is ‘ours’.”
Q. How do you feel about being top doc, serving our president?
“First off, I don't see myself as being ‘top’ anything. I'm a good family physician who has been blessed to end up caring for a good family. In this particular case, it's the First Family. The president deserves to have a personal physician whom he or she trusts and feels comfortable with. Ideally, the ‘doc’* will be one of the only people on the president's staff who isn't walking into the room and presenting him or her with a very difficult problem. The very presence of ‘Doc’ should be received as comforting. President Biden and the First Lady have chosen to continue to place their trust and confidence in me as their physician. For that, I am genuinely humbled, and will serve at their pleasure.”
*Editor’s note: O’Connor is called “Doc” by President Biden and White House staff.
SCHOOL'S OUT.
Congratulations are in order for Patrick Corr of HS Administration, who successfully defended his dissertation to earn a Doctor of Education degree from GW’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD). Corr’s dissertation is: “Subjective Well-Being, Self-Care, and Mental Health Help-Seeking Tendencies Among DACA Students at a Large Public University in the Mid-Atlantic United States.” His committee included: Beth Tuckwiller (chair) of GSEHD, Leslie Davidson (methodologist) of the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL), along with Doran Gresham and Maggie Parker (examiners), both of GSEHD. Corr is also assuming a new role in HS as the GW director of the Governor's Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School. Corr, who has been a part of this innovative career pathway program since the start, assumes leadership and planning formerly led by Linda Zanin and Catherine Golden, both of HS Administration who will be taking on new initiatives. Corr holds an adjunct faculty appointment in CRL.
