Chapter 11: An Opportunity to Work at a World-Class Institution
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Description
In this Chapter, Dr. Summers explains that after her experience at the NIH, she took a position in the Clinical Center which presented her with a whole new learning curve. At this point, a recruiter called her about a position at MD Anderson. She tells the story of her interaction with the recruiter and explains that she was interested as a new position would allow her to put her dissertation research into practice.
Identifier
SummersB_01_20140123_C11
Publication Date
1-23-2014
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Barbara Summers, PhD, Oral History Interview, January 23, 2014
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to TexasPersonal Background Professional Path Evolution of Career Joining MD Anderson
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Barbara Summers, PhD:
So I finished my doctorate, and at the same time, serendipity, an administrative position opened in the Clinical Center, and it was a position that administrative responsibility for Critical Care Services and the Vascular Access Services. So my boss called me to her office and asked me if I’d be interested in that job because I’d had a background in management and administration. And I thought about it for a minute, and I said, “Sure. Great opportunity.” And I had been doing the other thing for about three years, so I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” And then I accepted it, and then I got in that job and I’m like, “Oh, my god, what did I do?” Again. Because now I had to be a director of a Critical Care and Vascular Access Services, which I’ve taken care of patients with VADs and I’ve taken care of VADs, but I haven’t been on the end of the inserting of them. So I had to develop relationships with a whole new group of nurses, a whole new group of physicians, learn all new processes, get involved and enmeshed in all of the challenges that come from a management position that you don’t have to experience when you’re the nice friendly research nurse specialist who they’re everybody’s buddy. But I was, you know, moving along with it and making headway and making good progress, and one Friday afternoon I was in my office and my phone rang and I answered it, and it was a search firm, a headhunter. And, you know, when you get on the list, you get called by people all the time. So it was a typical Friday, and I was literally going through all the paper on my desk and putting them into balls and practicing getting them in the basket across the room, and really not listening to the woman, just being polite. So she was going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I’m like, “Got it, got it, got it.” And then she said, “And the position’s at MD Anderson Cancer Center.” I said, “Wait a minute now. Can you start over again?” Because my husband and I had talked about the reality that once I completed my doctorate, it was entirely possible that we would need to move somewhere else for me to have the opportunity to actually apply the doctorate to a position, and MD Anderson was such a place where one might be able to do that. So the woman described to me the position as the administrative director of the Hematology Center in the Hematology Inpatient Services. So at the time it was six outpatient clinics and six inpatient units. So I was quite intrigued, intrigued enough to tell her that I needed to think about it over the weekend and I would call her back the next week if I was interested. So I went home and talked to my husband about it, and he said, “Where is it?” I said, “I think it’s in Texas. I think Dallas or Houston, I don’t remember which.” And then I remembered, you know, “I’ve got a couple friends who live there and who work there. Let me just look it up real quick in my own directory.” Because there were no, like, websites. We’re talking 1997. Maybe there was a website, but it wasn’t like the kind of thing you’d go out today and do. I’m like, “Yep, it’s in Houston.” And I think I had been here actually one time before for a meeting, like in the eighties, but it was a typical professional meeting. You don’t get outside the hotel. So we talked about it, and my husband said, “Well, if it’s really a world-class organization and you’re interested, I think you should talk to them about it.” So I called the woman back on Monday, and I said, “I’d like to learn more.” So we then set up time for her to do an in-depth telephone interview with me that was a couple of hours long. So maybe we’ll stop there, because that’s how I came to be here.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Sounds good. Sounds good.
Barbara Summers, PhD:
I had zero intention of leaving, none at all, but then this wonderful window of opportunity opened, and that really is a theme for me. A window of opportunity opens and I jump through. Because my father told me years and years ago that when a window of opportunity opens, think carefully about not jumping through, because it may never open again.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
All right. Well, we’ll stop here for today. Thank you very much. And I am turning off the recorder at 2:52. (end of session one)
Recommended Citation
Summers, Barbara PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 11: An Opportunity to Work at a World-Class Institution" (2014). Interview Chapters. 1248.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1248
Conditions Governing Access
Open
