Chapter 19: The MD Anderson Presidents; No Plans for Retirement
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Description
Dr. Foxhall begins this segment with comments on MD Anderson presidents, Dr. Charles LeMaistre, Dr. John Mendelsohn, and Dr. Ronald DePinho. He then notes that he has no immediate plans for retirement (he is “having too much fun”), and explains that intends to further the tobacco agenda and to develop survivorship management, positioning the institution to work within more effective shared care models for survivorship.
Dr. Foxhall comments on the legacy he will leave: a network of collaborative connections designed for cancer control and management. He comments briefly on his love of travel, the enjoyable time he spends with his children, and his hobby, landscape photography.
Identifier
FoxhallLE_04_20140409_C19
Publication Date
4-9-2014
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - View on Career and Accomplishments; Portraits; Personal Background
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:
I wanted to ask you kind of as part of that general question about changes to the institution, about your impressions of the executive leadership, because you’ve worked now with a number of different presidents. I’d be interested in your impressions on their leadership styles and the mark you feel that each of them as left on the institution.
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Sure. Well, I haven’t been here that long. I’ve only worked with three of the four presidents. (laughs)
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s still three-quarters of them. (laughs)
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
But, no, it’s been interesting, and, you know, we’ve been fortunate to have really great leaders. Dr. LeMaistre was president when I first came on board, certainly a remarkable individual that had a strong career in leadership with the University of Texas before he took the reins here and did a masterful job, really had a good focus on prevention and helped us get the prevention area built up and was able to initiate some of the changes that then led to further growth in the institution. Dr. Mendelsohn was such a strong leader in the research world and brought his skills and vision to help us build the research side while also growing the clinical side dramatically. The continued expansion of the institution under his leadership I think is really phenomenal. So he was a real leader during his tenure. Now he continues his leadership in the research arena as he’s continued his efforts there. And Dr. DePinho is a fascinating person with just a tremendous amount of energy and huge vision, I think, to really bring us forward and to continue to help us use the resources of the institution to make a difference in the cancer problem, not just here in Houston and in Texas, but clearly across the country and even out in the world. He really has a broad focus and senses the great opportunities that we have here at the institution, with our wonderful faculty and assets, to really make a difference in the cancer problem. This whole initiative around the Moon Shots I think has been a very bold change that he’s brought forward to see if we can’t move the meter on some of these problems that have been very, very difficult to address. So, always moving forward. It’s interesting to see what’s happened over the years.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, Dr. Foxhall, you’re so involved with so many projects, I shudder to ask you, but have to, do you have plans for retirement? (laughter) So I can’t imagine that you do.
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Well, not immediately. As soon as I get this cancer problem taken care. (Rosolowski laughs.] When I first came here, I mentioned to you I thought I’d come here and work two or three years and then go off and do something else, but two turns into twenty pretty quickly, so it is amazing how quickly times go by. But there’s still, you know, a lot of really fascinating programs to work on and opportunities, I think, to try to address some of these issues that I’ve been interested in for some time.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What are some key ones that you really want to address hard before you leave the institution?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Well, I think the issues around survivorship management and trying to better understand how we position the institution and build collaborations with our community physicians to manage that growing population is one that I think is ripe for improvement, so I’ll continue to work there. We’re trying to get a grant in, actually, over the next couple of weeks to help us reach out to sort of primary care training programs and work with them to implement some changes that will help us with the shared care model. So then just promoting the prevention agenda, particularly around tobacco as we focus on the agenda to help, again, eliminate this number-one preventable cause of cancer and other illnesses here in this country. I think there’s still work yet to be done there. We’ve made a lot of progress over the years, but still not where we need to be. And this place is just a fascinating place to work and wonderful people to work with, and I think as long as they’ll put up with me, I’ll keep plugging away here for a while yet. So, lots of good opportunities out there still.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What legacy do you feel you will leave when you decide to depart the institution?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Well, I hope this work that we’ve done around building and improving relationships with our community physicians, building better collaborative practice initiatives is one. The other is the work around cancer control programs, trying to get those started and building them into a more sustainable program over time. And then the programs around survivorship, how we deal with that, dealing with the success of our wonderful treatment programs and better understanding how we can help people get the most out of their treatment that they went through and maintain a good quality of life after they have completed their treatments, I think is good work to be done. So, no shortages there.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What are your plans for retirement? Have you thought those out at all?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
No. (laughter) I really enjoy what I’m doing, and I don’t really have a burning interest in playing golf all day, so I get to do the fun things I do. I enjoy traveling and being with my now-grown kids and enjoying that aspect of life. So when I have opportunities to do that, it’s great. But I still get a kick out of doing what I’m doing, so it’s hard to really kind of think of a real reason to quit unless you really want to kind of go do something else.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s right. Yeah. Is there a talent or ability that no one knows about that you’d like to share? (laughter) You know, are you a secret portrait painter or— (laughs)
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
No, no, I don’t think there’s any great missed opportunities on that part.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I wasn’t thinking that, but—
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
I don’t know. I mean, I enjoy photography and—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, interesting.
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
—play with that a little bit when we travel. So that’s kind of fun.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Is there a particular subject matter you enjoy?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Mostly things that will be still long enough for me to compose a picture. (Rosolowski laughs.] I like landscape photography and these sorts of things, so that’s fun.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And where have you traveled that you’ve been able to—
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Oh, just wherever we go, you know, family vacations and whatnot. So I drag my camera along and snap a lot of pictures—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Interesting. What kind of camera?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
—which is great nowadays that we have digital. You know, you can just snap to your heart’s content.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Snap to your heart’s content. What kind of camera do you have?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
It’s a Nikon camera.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Has it got a lot of bells and whistles?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Mm-hmm.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
All right. So you really are a photographer.
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Knobs and buttons, that’s right. (Rosolowski laughs.) Not that I know how to work them all that well, but—
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I know with those you have to spend a lot of time with the instruction manual.
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
That’s right. But anyway, it’s kind of fun.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. Is there anything in our conversation about your role at MD Anderson that I’ve missed? Because I don’t know what I don’t know, I mean, is there anything that you would like to share for the record right now?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Well, I think we’ve covered all the major stuff that I could think of. So we have, I think, hit on all the primary activities, so you’ve done a good job [unclear].
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
All right. Thank you. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
Well, I appreciate your taking time to do this and the program putting all this together. I think it’s a great opportunity to get perspective from lots of different people here in the institution about life in this place. It’s a good story to tell.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, thank you, and thank you very much for devoting the time.
Lewis Foxhall, MD:
No, no, glad to do it. Sure thing.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
All right, Dr. Foxhall, I’m turning off the recorder at 1:45. (end of session four)
Recommended Citation
Foxhall, Lewis E. MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 19: The MD Anderson Presidents; No Plans for Retirement" (2014). Interview Chapters. 868.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/868
Conditions Governing Access
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