Clearly provided instructions to your search committee are likely to facilitate your work and achieve a work product, for me, which will match my expectations. To this end, I provide the following charge to the Search Committee for the Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

The job description

You are seeking a Chair of the Department Pathology and Laboratory Medicine who will report to the Dean and who will, in turn, be reported to by the faculty and staff of the department. You are seeking an academic leader who will fulfill the clinical, education, and research missions of the department.  Furthermore, good negotiating skills are important to deal with the multiple pushes and tugs of our relationships with multiple hospitals.

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is central to our school’s UME, GME, and CME missions; our research enterprise; and clinical care.  The department is deeply enmeshed in our relations with our partner hospitals. 

I have elected to proceed with a national search because I feel that it would be a disservice to the department not to have a fulsome discussion of the department’s present and future and to have a broadly cast net for a search.  The department requires an empowered and firm hand on the tiller. 

As I review the current status of the department, I have several specific issues I wish to emphasize: 

• Dr. Elin has served this department with great dignity, commitment, and effort.    I instruct the committee to offer him the opportunity to provide wise counsel and to consult with him with all appropriate deference. 
• Our relations with Jewish/St. Mary’s, Norton, University, and the VA Medical Center are essential to the success of this enterprise.  This department’s hospital relations have been mixed.  Emphasize candidates who will foster our hospital relationships.
• The strategic plans of this University and Health Sciences Campus have described success in obtaining NCI designation for the Cancer Center, successful opening of the U of L Health Care Outpatient Center, implementation of the new management structure of University Hospital, and the combination of the faculty practices as priorities.  I urge you to seek a Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine who is committed to these goals.
• I feel strongly that we must maintain our focus on medical education.  I am very concerned about the adequacy of the medical student core course in Pathology.  You are to seek a Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine who is enthusiastic and proud to be a school teacher. 
• In the event a joint operating agreement with other area hospitals is achieved, the role of hospital-based departments like Pathology will be particularly important and in need of skilled stewardship.
• The quality and quantity of disseminated research by this department must increase. 

In any economic undertaking, including the selection of a department chair, you must consider the allocation of resources “compared to alternatives.”  The University of Louisville School of Medicine has several major commitments either ongoing or upcoming.  We must identify Chairs of Urology, Anatomical Sciences/Neurobiology, Orthopedics, Obstetrics-Gynecology, and Microbiology/Immunology.  It is likely that one or two other Chairs will be vacated in the next one to two years. We are in the midst of another state budget cut.  This being the case, we will have to be good stewards of limited resources.

Interviews

The committee shall conduct a series of interviews with key stakeholders during the selection of the Chair.  I ask you to be certain to interview me, the Division Chiefs, Chair Elin, members of the faculty of the Department, members of the House Staff, and appropriate individuals representing the major departments/divisions that interact with Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, basic science researchers, and appropriate representatives of the hospitals.

Advertising

The individual selected may either be an internal or external candidate. To identify candidates I ask that an appropriate phone and mail campaign be undertaken. In addition, please run appropriate advertising in journals or websites for two to three months.

The Process

• Allow 8 to 12 weeks to receive letters of nomination or applications with accompanying CV’s.
• Check references.
• Conduct at least two rounds of interviews. I believe it is appropriate, as a matter of courtesy, to offer all internal candidates at least a first round interview. 
• The committee chair and/or I will actively seek outside candidates who we believe merit the committee’s evaluation.  This may include “reverse site visits.”
• By May 1, 2011, and earlier if possible, please provide me with a list of four or five finalists, unranked. Under no circumstances include anyone on this list whom the committee would not feel comfortable being offered the job.
• The last meeting of your committee should be with me where members of the committee will have the opportunity to discuss the final list.

My thanks to the group for being willing to serve.

Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., FACR

Dean of the School of Medicine

C:/My Documents/Dean/Charge to Committee – Chairman Pathology 1110 (dh)