Chapter 17: An Absence of Women in Executive Leadership at MD Anderson
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Summers observes that since her arrival at MD Anderson, there has been little progress in promoting women and minorities above the level of vice president: executive leadership continues to be white and male. She explains that the impediment seems to be a lack of self-awareness, and offers some examples of interactions that show how senior leadership does not see a problem. She observes that there is a similar problem in promoting women faculty and notes Dr. Elizabeth Travis’ work (Women Faculty Programs [Oral History Interview]) to advocate for women. Dr. Summers explains why the absence of women in leadership limits MD Anderson’s success. She also notes that, in other cancer centers, women serve as senior executives and MD Anderson is an anomaly, even among Houston institutions.
Identifier
SummersB_03_20140429_C17
Publication Date
4-29-2014
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, April 29, 2014
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Diversity Issues Experiences re: Gender, Race, Ethnicity Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Religion Obstacles, Challenges Obstacles, Challenges Women and Minorities at Work Women and Diverse Populations
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
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
We are now recording, and this is Tacey Ann Rosolowski. Today is April 29th, 2014, the time is 10:34, and I’m on the eighteenth floor of Pickens Tower in the Office of the Executive Vice President interviewing Dr. Barbara Summers. This is our third session together, so thanks for making time for me in your very, very busy schedule.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Before we turned on the recorder, you had started talking about issues of diversity and women and we kind of wanted to continue with that subject, so, please, the promotion of women, tell me what your thoughts are about this.
Barbara Summers, PhD:
You know, I’ve been in the organization for nearly seventeen years, and in the course of that period of time, I have observed little progress in the arena of meaningful promotions of women and/or minorities, meaning persons of color, into positions of executive leadership in the organization above vice president. There have been a number of presentations, reports that have been written, you know, I would say gestures of appreciation for women, yet the executive vice president level and the president continue to be white males. And I’m not taking potshots at any of the individuals in the roles, because they are wonderful people and they are very talented. At the same time, I firmly believe that there are equally talented women who could serve in those leadership roles, equally talented men and women of color who could serve effectively in those roles.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What do you think the impediment is?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
I think the greatest impediment is self-awareness and the fact that the Executive Committee members, including Dr. DePinho, who lauds his wife appropriately but really doesn’t see the importance of having that same approach as we’re selecting other senior leaders, and then the four executive vice presidents, Dr. Burke, Dr. Leach, Dr. Dmitrovsky, Dr. Buchholz, and Fontaine, the executive chief of staff, our CFO is a white male. I mean, we could just go down the line. So it’s a pattern that repeats itself, and having had conversations with senior executives in the past about this challenge and this concern, I have been told—and this is in the past—“Well, look, Adrienne Lang is a member of the Executive Committee.” And technically that was correct, but Adrienne Lang served as a vice president who was the chief of staff for the president. Adrienne Lang was not a key decision-maker in the organization. She did not hold the same power and authority that the executive vice presidents did. So that was actually, to me, quite dismissive. And another time there was a response to me, “Well, look at all the women who are in clinical administrative director positions in the organization,” which is effectively they’re managers or administrators of clinics. I mean, just no insight into the fact that that is not the type of position that we’re talking about. So we have that issue when it comes to administrative leadership, same issue when it comes to promotion of women into leadership roles in the faculty arena and to department chair roles and division head roles. Shortly after I had been appointed as the vice president and chief nursing officer, probably within three months of that time to six months of that time, I was informed by my boss at that time that my peer, who was then the vice president of Ambulatory Operations, was being promoted to be a senior vice president, and this is a gentleman who was twenty years my junior, who had far less experience than I did in healthcare administration; not just nursing, but healthcare administration.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And this peer’s name?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
Gerard Colman. I mean, Gerard was very charming, but completely unskilled. And when I asked my boss why did that happen, why was I not even given the opportunity to compete for the position, the response I was given, “Well, that was just the decision that he and the president had made.” So I went to the president at that time, Dr. Mendelsohn [Oral History Interview], and I said, “John, I would like to understand why I was not given the opportunity to be considered for the senior vice president position. And astoundingly, his response to me was, “Well, no one would listen to a wom[an]—nurse.” And either way, that was so telling.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah.
Barbara Summers, PhD:
Because what he was saying to me is no one would listen to a woman nurse. I mean, I was just absolutely appalled, absolutely appalled. So the problem hasn’t gone away. Liz Travis [Oral History Interview] has devoted years to trying to influence to a greater degree in what’s happening in the organization. She has been terrific as a mentor and sponsor for women and as an advocate for women, but her ability to be effective is limited by the people above her. So, you know, unless and until MD Anderson can get to the place where it recognizes that we need to have women who are bona fide members of the Executive Committee, not the chiefs of staff for the executive vice presidents, but bona fide members of the Executive Committee, we are going to be limited as an organization in our success.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How so?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
Because there is a difference in a way that men and women lead. There is ample evidence that describes it. Not saying that men’s leadership style and women’s leadership style are superior one to the other, but recognizing that women bring a different approach to leading and managing, and women are particularly adept at working within teams and building teams and approaching the team as a community, engaged in a shared effort to achieve a vision. We don’t have that here, which is why there continues to be starts and stops in engaging particularly the faculty in a trusting relationship, because we have an effort to do it, and it’s being led by men who don’t intrinsically understand or value the importance of teamwork. And they try hard to do it, but it’s not a part of their DNA and they haven’t honed that skill set, and so then they kind of drop it off and then we have to start again. So it’s just an observation. I would like nothing more than to see that change.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Just quickly, how does MD Anderson stand in advancing in this area vis-à-vis other peer institutions?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
I think when you look at other organizations, other big systems, you’re going to find women in senior executive leadership positions, almost uniformly. You know, I’ll just leave it at that. You can go out and look at the organizational charts of these organizations.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay.
Barbara Summers, PhD:
And interestingly, very frequently you find women in senior leadership positions as CEOs or system-level COOs who have a background in nursing, because nurses who have advanced through the ranks of nursing leadership have become quite skilled in not only leadership, but operations, management, and administration. So MD Anderson is a bit of an anomaly. I would say that Memorial Hermann System is similarly afflicted with a propensity to have white men in their leadership positions, but Methodist has women in senior leadership positions. Texas Children’s has women in senior leadership positions. Catholic Health Initiatives, who’s coming into the backyard, has women in senior leadership positions. UTMB has women in senior leadership positions. We’re just kind of hanging out there and not in a good way.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, thanks for addressing that. Shall we shift gears now—
Barbara Summers, PhD:
Yes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
—and talk about some of the issues lingering from our last session [unclear]?
Barbara Summers, PhD:
Absolutely.
Recommended Citation
Summers, Barbara PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 17: An Absence of Women in Executive Leadership at MD Anderson" (2014). Interview Chapters. 1254.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1254
Conditions Governing Access
Open
