Chapter 14: Section Chief and Department Head: Learning to Lead
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Description
Dr. Escalante begins this segment with a description of how she replaced section chief Ed Rubenstein in 1997 because of complaints about his leadership. She explains that morale was very low in the section during this difficult time for her and for the section. A central problem: when she replaced Dr. Rubenstein, she was also promoted above him. Dr. Escalante next talks about the challenges she faced during this period when she had to cope with a great deal of conflict within the section. After a year, she explains, she went to her supervisor, and Dr. Rubenstein was moved to another section. Dr. Escalante talks about her leadership style: she stresses consensus, but she is also a decision-maker. She has learned a great deal about organizing administrative structure effectively and also cultivates leadership talent within the department.
Identifier
EscalanteCP_02_20140514_C14
Publication Date
5-14-2014
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - The Administrator; The Administrator; The Leader; Obstacles, Challenges; Experiences re: Gender, Race, Ethnicity; Building/Transforming the Institution; Institutional Politics; Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Religion
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:
Now, let me ask you when you—so you were section chief and then in 2000, the Division of Internal Medicine was created. So tell me about that process whereby you were at-interim chair and then selected to be the permanent chair of the new Department of General Internal Medicine.
Carmen Escalante, MD:
Well, that was another transition. So in 2000, when Dr. Mendelsohn elevated the Department of Medical Specialties to the Division of Internal Medicine, all of our sections were made departments, and those of us that were section chief were made at-interim section chief. I don’t remember how many of the departments; probably six or seven. There were a few sections that I can’t remember—Dr. Gagel probably has a better insight—that didn’t have a permanent section chief or were going through a transition, so what they did is they wanted to recruit those first and they wanted to recruit the division head first so they would have an opportunity to select department chairs. So I think what happened was the division-head search went as well as those sections that didn’t have a permanent section chief. So we were one of the last to be searched for a section chief.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Or a department chair.
Carmen Escalante, MD:
Or a department chair. I’m sorry.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s all right. It was just for the record.
Carmen Escalante, MD:
And so by the time they had a national search, so there were external candidates, I applied internally and we went through the process, and I think by the time I was selected and everything, the package, it was 2005. And during those five years, I mean, you’re kind of in a void because you’re the leader but there are no resources to build, so not a whole lot happened. I mean, we continued doing what we had always done, trying to do the best we could, but we didn’t get a lot of resources to develop a research area, because previously we had very limited, if any, research, because we were initially a section to fill a clinical niche, to fill in clinical needs.So with the division being Dr. Gagel was appointed the permanent division head—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And his first name is?
Carmen Escalante, MD:
Robert. He had been the department chair for Medical Specialties.I was able to get a package that included resources to build a research program. By that time, we were able to build or get more faculty because we started developing clinical programs and building clinical programs. I was fortunate to get a lot of real hardworking clinical faculty. Dr. Sahai came on to help build IMPAC, our periop program. Dr. Suarez, as I said, was recruited. We had a lot of activity going on in those first few years after I got the package.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Why were you selected, do you think, to be department chair?
Carmen Escalante, MD:
Well, I hope I was selected because they thought I was the best candidate. It’s a unique niche in doing internal medicine in cancer patients. You know, I’m not privy to exactly what conversations went on between the Search Committee in my selection, but I hope that my hard work over the years and the trials and tribulations I’d had when I transitioned as a section chief. And over that time, I guess, by the time of 2005, I had about eight years of experience of leading the group, that that was taken into consideration.But I was happy. I was happy that I was chosen. I felt validation, that I had done a good job, and people like a pat on the back, saying, “You know, we like you. You’re doing a great job. We expect more as department chair.” And with the resources, I feel now it’s been, what, nine years that we’ve been able to build, we’ve been able to show the productivity in our research with—I mean, we didn’t have a huge research package, but I think that with the package I was given, we were able to show, with the help of Dr. Suarez, that, yes, it’s important.We were successful in recruitments. We were successful by showing that our research funding was near the top, at the top or near the top, to other departments that had credible research programs way before us with—we don’t do basic science or lab-based research. We do a lot of data-driven research and clinical research, and that that is valuable.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How closely do all of these accomplishments over the last nine years connect up with the vision that you had for the department when you became formal chair in 2005 and suddenly it’s like, “Okay, now you can move ahead. You’ve got the resources”?
Carmen Escalante, MD:
Well, it was an expectation. I mean, Dr. Gagel told me, “You need to build a research program,” and I don’t think he thought I would be successful. In fact, he told me a few years ago, “I never thought you would be able to build this research program.” He told me, himself.And I said, “Wow. Gee.” To myself I said, “Gee, thanks a lot.” (laughs) That gives me a lot of validation of the confidence he had in me.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Again I’m wondering is that a gender issue.
Carmen Escalante, MD:
I definitely think it could be. You know, again, that sensitivity is there with them still around, and we may have to think of how we do this, but yes.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
If you’d like, we can kind of address those issues in a separate section, if you prefer to [unclear].
Carmen Escalante, MD:
Yeah. I definitely think that that was attributed. I think he definitely looks at Ivy League-trained people differently, and I wasn’t, and I think, you know, he does look at women in a different light. And for whatever his reasons were, he told me himself that he didn’t think that I could do it and was surprised, and I think he was probably more than surprised when we had the top funding for a few years recently, compared to endocrinology and cardiology. Even symptom management, who is a research department, we surpassed them, and I think that was very surprising.We’ve always been a strong clinically, but I think that we, in my opinion—of course, I’m biased—we have one of the strongest clinical groups in the division, and we work very hard to make our other groups that we work with and patients happy and be accessible and follow through.
Recommended Citation
Escalante, Carmen MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 14: Section Chief and Department Head: Learning to Lead" (2014). Interview Chapters. 772.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/772
Conditions Governing Access
Open
