Chapter 08: Transitioning from Research to Administration
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Description
In this Chapter, Dr. Bogler explains his decision to shift more fully into administration when the opportunity to lead Global Academic Programs arose in 2010. He explains that in addition to administrative experience, he had relevant intercultural experience to offer. He sketches the vision statement he submitted with his application.
He also sketches the situation in the Department of Neuro-surgery that contributed to his decision to shift away from work centered on that Department.
Identifier
BoglerO_01_20141110_C08
Publication Date
11-17-2014
Publisher
The Historical Resources Center, Research Medical Library, The University of Texas Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Oliver Bogler, PhD, Oral History Interview, November 10, 2014
Keywords
Professional Path; Evolution of Career; Understanding the Institution; Institutional Politics; Obstacles, Challenges; Professional Values, Ethics, Purpose
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Professional Path; Evolution of Career; Understanding the Institution; Institutional Politics; Obstacles, Challenges; Professional Values, Ethics, Purpose
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
Oliver Bogler, PhD:
And then when the GAP [Global Academic Programs] position was announced—so the GAP program had been without a vice president for, I think, around a year, and Dr. Dubois was the provost now, and when that was posted, it caught my attention. I thought, “Wow. What’s this all about?” And I have to tell you, I didn’t really know anything about GAP. I hadn’t really come across the program, hadn’t really be in touch with it. It had not been something I was very strongly aware of. And I remember successfully, after a couple attempts, catching Dr. Dubois after a couple attempts in the hallway. This was back when the executives were up on R-11. We were coming from some lecture, and I said, “Do you mind if I walk with you on your way to your office?” And I then asked him, “I’m thinking of putting my hat in the ring for this position. What do you think?” And he looked at me as sort of though, “Hmm.” I forget what he said, something like, “Don’t you think you should spend your time doing what you’re doing now?” or something like that, or “Wouldn’t your time be better spent doing what you’re doing now?” And I thought, “Hmm.” (laughs) I was a little discouraged. And I think he was just saying, “You know, you’re doing important stuff, you’re doing something valuable to the institution in research in the brain tumor center. Maybe you should keep doing that.” But I was determined not to—I think in the end, I forget how we left it, but it wasn’t a definitive answer, and obviously he wasn’t running the search committee or something. I decided I was going to throw my hat in the ring anyway.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So what was that balance about? Because, I mean, you had to anticipate that was taking on more and more of these administrative experiences, it’s going to chip away at the laboratory time, so what was going on in your mind?
Oliver Bogler, PhD:
Well, I think the other thing was—and this is also a little bit sensitive, but I’ll just be completely honest. So I’d come to MD Anderson and the task that had been set me by Ray [Raymond Sawaya, MD [Oral History Interview]] and Al [Alfred Yung, MD [Oral History Interview]] was to help get the SPORE, and I’d done that by this time, and I’d done a couple other things in the brain tumor center, made some other changes. One of the things I did, for example, was that I persuaded everybody that we would pool the maintenance and operation supplement that lab-based faculty get from MD Anderson on an annual basis, that we would pool 75 percent of that and put it into a common fund and so some center-wide things with it, like hire a technician that would help run the equipment for everybody and these kinds of things. So I was trying to build a community. Coincident with me coming was the move to the Mitchell Building. We were now all together on the fifth floor of the Mitchell Building, which was huge and transformative because before, everybody had been scattered. So these things all worked together. But I remember several conversations with Ray, with Al, and ultimately I think we had lunch together, the three of us, and I put to them the fact that I think now we should move on in the genesis of the center to a new stage. We should try and make the brain tumor center a true center in the MD Anderson ecosystem, or see if we could get the institution to invest some funds in us and so on. And I felt that I wanted to be the leader of that. I also was aware that, of course, philanthropy was coming in all the time in both clinical departments, grateful patients, and so on, and there were some other foundations around. I really had no influence on how those funds were being spent at all. And I said, “You know what? You brought me here to be the leader of the research group. I’d like to have a more formal recognition of that and be more involved in the stewardship of the resources.” You mentioned stewardship. And the upshot of that was we had a very nice lunch and there was very polite conversation, and then sometime afterwards they said, “In recognition of your great work, we’ll give you—you’ll have $50,000 a year for your research lab from our philanthropy funds.” I said, “Okay. I understand where this is going.” And I have to tell you in my heart of hearts, I felt perfectly fine with it. I didn’t feel like I’d been exploited or anything like that. I felt it was a fair bargain. I went into being the co-PI of the SPORE with completely open eyes. I understood that Al was the PI and he was the architect of it, and I was going to do the behind-the-scenes work. I was completely comfortable with that. But I also, through this process and these conversations over the period of a few months, recognized that there was going to be a limit to where I was going to go in the system, and fair enough. Ray and I have a very good relationship—Ray Sawaya I’m talking about now—and Ray basically said to me, “Come in and do this, and we’ll see where we go.” So it wasn’t all down to him. I think it was a joint decision. It would have had to have been a joint decision. I don’t think it was what they wanted to do at the time. And I understand it. I mean, I was basically saying, “You know, okay, I’ve done what you’ve asked me to. Now what’s—?” And they were saying, “Oh, you know, you’re good.” And so I thought, “Okay.” So when another opportunity opened, I thought about it, right? And so that was part of my thinking for sure. It was just at some point I wanted to do something that was going to open up new opportunities and new doors. So when this GAP position was announced, I thought, “Oh, this looks really interesting.” And what you said earlier about I do have a great passion for lots of different cultures or exposure to [unclear], I felt I could contribute something. I had just had these experiences in building a collaboration in miniature amongst a small group of like-minded scientists, admittedly. I thought, “Let’s see.” So I threw my hat in the ring. I wrote a four- or five-page, if I remember correctly, something like that, sort of plan, vision. I sort of made a vision statement, if you will, or plan of where I would try and take the program. And, of course, I suggested some things that were already in place, because I wasn’t that familiar with the program.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What was included in your vision statement?
Oliver Bogler, PhD:
It was really just the idea of how we would manage the program. I talked about forming a committee. It turned out there was already a committee. I talked about the fact that we would probably have to have seed grant programs. The SPOREs have these developmental programs and some well-known mechanism. They’re all over this institution, every institution, but I knew there weren’t any yet in that. I talked about—I’d have to go back and look it up. It was four or five years ago. But I remember putting in some sort of concrete strategic things that I would do to try and get the research, to get the group organized, and I talked a little bit about bringing some metrics into how we would measure the effectiveness of the relationships. I think that was one of the criticism of the—and I was aware enough of the program to realize that. The criticisms were that it was a soft program and that it really wasn’t very serious, and it was really for the benefit of people who wanted to travel and not really very serious-minded. So those are some of the things that I said I was interested in doing.
Recommended Citation
Rosolowksi, Tacey A. PhD and Bogler, Oliver PhD, "Chapter 08: Transitioning from Research to Administration" (2014). Interview Chapters. 1561.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1561
Conditions Governing Access
Open
