Paul L. Foster School of Medicine
Diversity & skill: Faculty, dedicated specialists ready to teach
By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times, 07/19/2009
EL PASO -- The new Paul L. Foster School of Medicine didn't have much trouble attracting faculty members.
For some, it was the cutting-edge facilities or curriculum that sealed the deal. Others were excited to help build a medical school program from the ground up.
"It's been wonderful -- better than I had dreamed possible," said Dr. Brian Tobin, associate dean and founding chairman of the Department of Medical Education at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
He joined the school in July 2007 and was responsible for developing the composition of the medical education faculty. Since then, 26 new faculty members have joined the department to help teach the first class of 40 students.
More than 200 people applied for the 26 positions, Tobin said.
Including the new hires, about 200 faculty are on staff at the medical school, said Cindy Camarillo, director of the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Camarillo said a challenge in recruiting medical school faculty was that many of those sought had to be both medical professionals and educators.
"These are physicians and Ph.D.s that have specialized and have chosen to work in schools of medicine, who have the whole package. They are teachers and have their own established careers as well," she said.
Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa, the founding dean of the medical school, said many of the new faculty members have dedicated their careers to education.
"We brought people in from Germany, from Canada. We brought people from Georgia, people from Massachusetts, people from California," he said.
He said the school also looked to existing Texas Tech faculty to teach its first-year students.
"It was an interesting process because a new school is a risk for somebody early in their careers," he said.
De la Rosa said some who were offered jobs declined.
"Some people like the newness, and some people were afraid of the newness," he said.
He said most of the newly hired faculty members are people midway into their careers.
"One of the things that was a change for us was bringing in very junior faculty, people straight out of their post-doctoral programs," De la Rosa said.
This signaled that the school was not only building a staff of senior faculty members but also planning for the future, de la Rosa said.
Tobin said El Paso's medical school is one of only a handful in the nation that has an interdisciplinary department of medical education. The typical model, he said, has a separation between the different departments, such as physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, family medicine and emergency medicine.
"We've poured it all into the same department," Tobin said.
Faculty members in the various disciplines must instead work together within the framework of four courses taken by students during their first two years of medical school.
"The administration and the people who began the process of putting the faculty together were very wise in making people clear ... we were going to be doing something fairly new," said Dr. Kathryn McMahon, a college master and a professor of pharmacology at the school.
The school placed an emphasis on recruiting its four college masters, who will help guide the students through their four years in medical school.
Tobin said it was important to seek out professors who are knowledgeable, skillful, dutiful and altruistic. He reeled off the résumé of one.
"Dr. Gary Simpson, he's an M.D., Ph.D., master of public health, master of clinical science, trained at Oxford and the discoverer of the hanta virus," Tobin said.
Tobin said two more faculty members are expected to join the Department of Medical Education by September. He said two more college masters will be hired by next spring.
"I believe we are way ahead of the other medical schools opening for our successes in recruiting more top-tier faculty," Tobin said. "They may have recruited more researchers, but for opening a medical school, we have recruited more medical educators."
Camarillo said recruitment often isn't seen as a success until a person has been on staff for three years.
"Our recruitment activities don't really end here. Once they sign the contract and step foot in the door, we continue to embrace them, love them, make sure their families are part of the community and that their spouse and kids are happy."
Erica Molina Johnson may be reached at emolina@elpasotimes.com; 546-6132.
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