Dr. Jane Gibson, a founding professor of pathology at the UCF College of Medicine, has been named a 2014-2015 fellow of the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program at Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Gibson is one of 54 in this year’s class at ELAM, which prepares senior women faculty for leadership roles at academic medical centers.
She is the second faculty member at UCF’s young medical school to be chosen for the program in the past two years. Dr. Lori Boardman, assistant dean of medical education and a professor of obstetrics-gynecology will graduate from ELAM this year.
ELAM is part of the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership at Drexel, which began as the nation’s first women’s medical school in 1850. ELAM now has nearly 800 graduates who serve in leadership positions from department head to university president. College of Medicine Dean Deborah German and Dr. Diane Davey, assistant dean for graduate medical education and professor of pathology, are also ELAM graduates.
“I am tremendously honored to be an ELAM fellow,” Dr. Gibson said. “I believe that participating in ELAM will advance my leadership skills and broaden my perspective of academic medicine beyond my current knowledge and experience.”
During an intensive year-long curriculum, Dr. Gibson will have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing academic health centers and will undertake an Institutional Action Project in collaboration with College of Medicine senior leaders. Dr. Gibson said she wants to focus her project in areas of faculty affairs which will serve the College’s faculty at the UCF campuses, Pegasus Health, and in the community.
ELAM’s mission is to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions in medical academia, and to increase the diversity academic health institutions. In addition to teaching and serving as the director of molecular pathology for UCF Pegasus Health, Dr. Gibson is the outgoing president of the College of Medicine’s Faculty Council, and serves on the college’s Enterprise leadership group. She is the College’s senior representative to the AAMC Council for Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS) and is a member of the CFAS task force on faculty identity and value. Before joining the medical school faculty, Dr. Gibson served as the Director of Molecular Genetics at AmeriPath/Quest Diagnostics and was the founding Director of the Molecular Pathology Laboratory and Health Research Institute at Orlando Health and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando. She is currently working to establish a collaborative Molecular Pathology Laboratory with the Department of Pathology at Nemours Children’s Hospital, and also works with the Molecular Pathology Laboratory at Florida Hospital. Dr. Gibson is a member of numerous national professional societies, and is currently the Chair of the Association For Molecular Pathology’s (AMP) Whole Genome Analysis Working Group which is leading national efforts to implement Molecular Pathology clinical practice standards for next generation DNA sequencing in patient care.
She said she looks forward to learning from the nation’s top women healthcare leaders and further developing her skills in areas such as strategic planning and budgeting to meet the needs of rapid change within healthcare and medical education environments. “We are privileged to be at a new medical school,” Dr. Gibson said. “We have the opportunity to work together and create our own ‘Orlando model’ to meet the needs of the UCF College of Medicine and the community.”