Home > Business Insider > Archives > 2008 > June > 02 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USMorehouse helps make Atlanta public health center
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After two years as president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, John E. Maupin Jr. has big plans to increase the institution’s impact on the community.
Don’t be surprised if in a few years the school will have doubled or tripled its endowment; become a gathering place for leaders developing policies for public health; expanded its educational offerings and outreach programs and emerged as an institution known for its faculty and professionals.
The Morehouse School of Medicine split from Morehouse College in 1981 to become its own four-year college with a special purpose in the healthcare field.
“Our original mission was to train primary care physicians to serve in underserved communities,” Maupin said, adding that the institution emphasized the African American community in the Atlanta area.
Now the mission has been expanded to serve people of color (including other population groups) throughout the state.
The Morehouse School of Medicine is in the midst of a major strategic planning process, to be completed this fall, to take the institution to the next level. That likely will lead to a new capital campaign to grow the institution over the next five or so years.
“We are going to have to make focused investments in key areas that advance the mission and viability of the institution,” said Maupin, 61, a dentist by training who also has an MBA from Loyola College in Baltimore. “We have done a great job of growing from small resources.”
(By the way, Maupin serves on the boards of Variable Annuity Life Insurance Cos.; LifePoint Hospitals, HealthSouth, and Regions Financial Corp.)
The school does have its challenges. It’s relatively young. Many of is graduates are first generation college students, often from poorer backgrounds. Because the school specializes in primary healthcare, not the most lucrative medical field, the alumni’s ability to make major donations to the school is limited.
The school’s endowment today is at $60.8 million, a far cry from the endowments found at other similarly-sized medical schools.
“The minimum should be $200 million, and healthier institutions would be at $300 million plus,” Maupin said. “Our opportunity for substantial gifts from our community is limited.”
Still, the Morehouse School of Medicine has come a long way. In 1998, the endowment was only $10.6 million.
Credit for the school’s growth in the past decade is largely due to two of its past presidents, both national leaders in public health.
The founding president was Dr. Louis Sullivan, who served as U.S. secretary of health and human resources from 1989 to 1993. He then returned to his role as president of Morehouse School of Medicine until he retired in 2002. Sullivan continues to advise the institution.
The other high-profile leader is Dr. David Satcher. Satcher served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1993 and 1998; and as U.S. Surgeon General from 1998 to 2002. He served as interim president of Morehouse in 2004 until Maupin came on board in 2006. That’s when he established the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the school.
“We were nationally known because of the prominence of our leaders, our stars — Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Satcher,” Maupin said. “Our future is not going to be about how well I’m known. In the future, our stars are going to be our top researchers, administrators, graduates and alums.”
Part of Maupin’s leadership style is to take the spotlight off himself and to promote others in the organization. At the same time, he has worked hard to keep all the stars who brought the school this far working together.
Maupin was tapped in February 2006 to be president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, when he was president and CEO of Meharry Medical College in Nashville. A major reason for accepting the job was that his son, Virgil, 31, wanted to return to Atlanta and teach at Morehouse College.
But then tragedy struck. His son was killed in an automobile accident that April. The pain was especially intense given the fact that Maupin had been leading a campaign to encourage the use of seat belts in the African-American community. He had received national awards and recognition for his work.
“My son wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” Maupin said. “I know that my initiative saved lives, but I wasn’t able to change the habit of my son.”
At Morehouse, Maupin knows he can continue helping save lives and promoting the health and welfare of those in the community.
Maupin has been busy strengthening the school’s community ties with Grady Hospital, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Cancer Coalition and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, among others.
Morehouse has been particularly vested in the future of Grady, which serves as the teaching hospital for 90 percent of its students. The hospital still owes $7 million to the school, but at least it is keeping up with its current payments.
“The crisis is past, but significant challenges remain,” said Maupin, who is an ex-officio member on the new board. While Grady will always serve as the anchor teaching hospital for Morehouse, he is exploring relationships with other hospitals, particularly the Veterans Administration hospital.
Maupin also wants to double the size of Morehouse’s public health program, and it is establishing a School for Community Health.
“Atlanta is in fact a center for global health, and that’s a place where we want to play a bigger role,” Maupin said mentioning the CDC, the Carter Center and CARE among others. “We can be a focus of bringing thoughtful leaders to our campus and to this city on the issues of health that face the nation.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Services »
Comments