Open Search or Rotating Leadership: Thoughts Concerning Selecting Chairs for an Academic Ophthalmology Department

Frederick “Fritz” Redlich, an outstanding psychiatrist and Dean of Yale Medical School in the 1960s and 1970s, enjoyed recounting the evolution of department chairs in American medical schools. Originally it was the great clinician who was appointed chair, then the great clinician-teacher; after that, the great scientist was added to the mix, followed by the great financial manager. “And now,” Dean Redlich would conclude, “only a psychopath can believe himself to have all the qualifications for the job.”1 By the 1980s and 1990s, when Donna Shalala, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, interviewed candidates for clinical chairs, she had reduced the major requirements to 3: “Recruit the brightest and best faculty and get them the money and space for their success.”2

Source: Ophthalmology - January 18, 2018 Category: Opthalmology Authors: Daniel M. Albert, George B. Bartley Tags: Editorial Source Type: research