Opportunities for Emeriti Participation in PSOM Departments: Chair Responses

Many of the Senior and Emeritus Faculty faculty would like to stay involved but do not know which activities would be welcomed by the Chairs. Some retired faculty have lectured and supervised residents/students, served on school and departmental committees, reviewed and edited papers and grants, conducted clinical and basic research, interviewed candidates for faculty, residency and post-doctoral positions, continued contact with former patients, mentored younger faculty, etc. The Chairs of the Basic Science and Clinical Departments were surveyed and asked if they had interest in having retired faculty participate in activities of their department. The following is a summary of the Chair’s responses. Those retired faculty who want to pursue the opportunities listed should contact the respective department chair directly. ASEF-PSOM would be very interested in hearing from you about your experience.

Biochemistry and Biophysics

Mitchell Lewis; Kristen Lynch
"Emeritus faculty with particular expertise could be useful in departmental mock study sections or joining mentoring teams for junior faculty with closely related interests. They are also welcome to attend the weekly faculty lunch, and participate in departmental seminar series where their expertise would benefit younger trainees. Further, clinicians could contribute by teaching small group sessions for first-year medical students."

Cell and Developmental Biology

Nancy Speck
"I'd be delighted to consider participation in reviewing grants, especially with junior faculty, before submission, and also in providing mentoring to postdoctoral fellows and career advice to junior faculty. Many postdocs are worried about careers and don't know about some possible options. Help and guidance in this area would be terrific. Also, attending departmental seminars and activities, and asking good questions, is valued."

Dermatology

George Cotsarelis
"Areas of possible interactions in resident’s clinic include: Rheumatology—we could use someone interested in rheum to comment on patients in our general dermatology clinic Endocrine—we could use someone with expertise in endocrinology in our acne clinic Gynecology—we see a fair number of patients with genital dermatology problems and one of our residents may be interested in this area. We do have guest lecturers for the residents and the above topics would be good. On the research side, having additional mentors who are familiar with the promotion process and also emeritus faculty to read drafts of grants or manuscripts would be helpful."

Medicine

Michael Parmacek
"We would welcome Senior and Emeritus Faculty to participate in the Department. Areas of interest: Mentoring of Junior Faculty Resident teaching Grant and manuscript review prior to submission."

Neurology

Frances Jensen
"I have found that they have been invaluable running awards committees and also incredibly helpful with development efforts. They are also great at mentoring faculty members in certain situations."

Neuroscience

John Dani
"Yes, I think the participation of retired Faculty is a great idea. I will be very happy to discuss details with anyone interested."

Neurosurgery

M. Sean Grady (Former Department Chair)
"We would definitely be interested in having senior faculty help with grant critiques. Further, they might be interested in serving on mentoring committees that review junior faculty progress and give advice on opportunities for the faculty to insure success in promotion."

Obstetrics & Gynecology Orthopedic Surgery

Deborah Driscoll (Former Department Chair)
"In the past, several retired faculty staffed resident clinics and taught students. I really like the idea of having faculty available to review papers and grants – it is so important these days."

Orthopaedic Surgery

L. Scott Levin
"The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery would be delighted to have Senior and Emeritus faculty participate in our department activities. Marvin Steinberg is the role model for such engagement. He attends grand rounds, teaches medical students, advises the chair, and helps with development efforts. If we could clone him, I would be delighted. The most valuable role of our Emeritus faculty is reaching out to our alumni and encouraging them to watch the progress of the department from afar, and to engage in activities that preserve our legacy. Those that are involved with Overseas volunteer work would be asked to travel with our residents if possible."

Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery

Bert O’Malley (Former Department Chair)
"We have one Emeritus faculty, Dr. Jim Saunders who works with our faculty and mentors them in their manuscript and grant writing and career development. We have been very pleased with his continued role and participation in the Dept. Overall, I think that having Emeritus faculty actively participate is a good thing for all."

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

David Roth (Former Department Chair)
"I would welcome participation. Educational activities, grant advice as you mention would be of interest. We are also developing leadership development opportunities for our faculty, and I am sure some emeritus faculty have insights to share."

Systems Pharmacology & Translational Therapeutics

Garret FitzGerald
"A resounding Yes for them to participate in department activities. The faculty suggested the following in order of times suggested: Help students/post docs/junior faculty develop manuscripts and grant applications Lecturing on areas of expertise Serve on candidacy exam committees Teach in area of expertise."

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Timothy Dillingham
"Mentorship of junior faculty in their career development would be very useful. Also internal critical review of grants and manuscripts before submission."

Physiology

J. Kevin Foskett
"I will soon be implementing a mandatory internal grant review process, for which I will need faculty to participate as reviewers. This might be something that particular emeritus professors could contribute. I would like to develop a detailed history of the Department. Someone could take this on. There could be a possibility of helping to identify and develop content for our Departmental website. If there is an interest in continuing to do science, as I suspect is likely to be true for many basic scientists, as Chair I could try to identify appropriate labs, where the PI would work with the retired professor to define the scope of the interaction. Good teaching is always welcome…lectures in courses; provide oversight for junior faculty teaching dossier during the tenure-track period (first 6-7 years); etc. The right person might be able to serve as a departmental go-to person for shared equipment issues."

Radiation Oncology

James Metz
"I would definitely have interest and a couple of thoughts come to mind: mentoring junior faculty, educational activities for residents and junior faculty, service on search committees, service on department COAP. In particular, because we are a small department, the majority of our faculty is junior, and we rotate senior faculty on and off our COAP, we could use full professor representation."

Radiology

Mitchell Schnall
"Retired Faculty can be very useful to Radiology. We welcome them to participate in our Resident teaching program Mentoring of young faculty Attend and participate in our Grand Rounds and Research Meeting."