Becker's Hospital Review

44 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH Dr. Vineet Arora: UChicago's newly appointed dean of medical education plans to fight for health equity By Lauren Jensik V ineet Arora, MD, became the Univer- sity of Chicago's next dean of medical education July 1. Her predecessor, Halina Brukner, MD, is retiring. Her new position oversees the education and training of medical students, residents and faculty. Dr. Arora, who previously served as the school's assistant dean of scholarship and dis- covery and associate chief medical officer for clinical learning environment, said she isn't partial to a phrase widely used throughout the pandemic: "the new normal." "Maybe it's the 'new and improved, better' that we need to aim for," she said. "ere was nothing normal about what we were doing in medical education." She referred to the last year of the pandemic as a "racial reckoning" and has prioritized a curriculum that exposes trainees to the inner workings of healthcare. "e issues around structural racism and inequities are very real in medicine and in medical education," she said. "It is critical to our mission to train our students, residents, fellows and faculty on issues of social justice, and to provide them with tools of health sys- tem science so that they can improve care for everybody." She is also eager to tackle burnout, a troubling issue plaguing physicians and trainees as a re- sult of the pandemic. "We must look for ways to encourage and inspire our clinicians to en- ter fields that we critically need. at includes serving medically underserved communities." As for the future of medical education, Dr. Arora thinks virtual learning is here to stay but hybrid forms will dominate. Virtual learning will be instrumental in providing residents with opportunities to learn in com- munities they otherwise wouldn't be able to. "We need to prepare our physicians to be lead- ers and effective team members," she said. n New HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm: 4 facts By Kelly Gooch T he Senate confirmed Andrea Palm as the next deputy secretary of HHS. She will be the No. 2 official at a $1 trillion-plus agency with about 80,000 employees. Ms. Palm's nomination was confirmed in a 61-37 vote May 11. Four things to know about Ms. Palm: 1. Ms. Palm most recently was secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. During her time in this role, Republican state lawmakers challenged pub- lic health declarations and mask mandates related to the COVID-19 pandemic response, and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers described her as "a consummate professional who has done an extraordinary job helping lead our state during an unprecedented public health crisis," the Wisconsin Examin- er reported April 23. 2. Before joining Wisconsin DHS, Ms. Palm held roles in for- mer President Barack Obama's administration, including se- nior counselor to the HHS secretary and chief of staff for HHS. 3. She served as a senior adviser to the White House Domestic Policy Council during the ACA's implementation and rollout, and she helped lead efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. 4. Ms. Palm earned her bachelor's degree from Ithaca, N.Y.- based Cornell University and a master's degree from Wash- ington University in St. Louis. n More women assuming chief marketing officer role, but racial, ethnic diversity is slipping By Jackie Drees D espite more women becoming chief mar- keting officers in 2020, the profession saw a drop in overall racial and ethnic diversity, ac- cording to a recent report from executive search firm Spencer Stuart. For its 17th annual CMO Tenure Study, Spencer Stuart analyzed the tenures of CMOs from 100 of the most ad- vertised brands in the U.S. as of Dec. 31, 2020. Four study insights: 1. Nearly half (47 percent) of all CMOs in 2020 were women, up from 43 percent in 2019 and 36 percent in 2018. 2. For 2020's incoming class of CMOs, women repre- sented more than half (52 percent). This surpassed 2019, when women made up 48 percent of the in- coming CMO class. 3. Racial and ethnic diversity among all CMOs dropped from 14 percent in 2019 to 13 percent in 2020. 4. Of the incoming CMOs in 2020, only 12 percent were racially or ethnically diverse, down from 19 per- cent in 2019. n

• Cover