Joseph C. Kolars, MD, is the Josiah Macy Jr. Professor of Health Professions Education and Senior Associate Dean for Education and Global Initiatives at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. Dr. Kolars was appointed to be the Josiah Macy Jr. Professor of Health Professions Education in 2013, and has focused his career on physician education. Macy sat down with Kolars and discussed the importance of endowed professorships.
What has the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation award allowed you to do that you might not otherwise?
The award has allowed me to be more creative, take risks and explore new ideas. It has provided me with a space to begin looking at issues that aren’t covered by any specific funded proposal and to devote faculty effort time to developing new ideas, which is also not typically supported by grants and funded activities.
For me specifically, I’ve been interested in thinking about creating a new type of academy of medical educators than what can be found at other medical schools; one that is able to energize a large number of faculty to work in common on education and to work collaboratively across boundaries to involve other health professionals. To be able to use an endowed professorship to create new initiatives in medical education and faculty development is a real gift.
Why do you think endowed chairs are important for institutions such as Michigan?
For an outside group like Macy to say there is faculty and leadership at the institution worth investing in allows institutions a certain degree of external validation. The academic system is always predicated on external reviews and the endowed professorship is another mechanism of external validation.
And the financial resources obviously are also helpful. There is a lot of economic strain on institutions these days and a hesitancy to raise tuition costs, which are the more traditional ways to fund education. Anything we can do to turn to other partners such as the Macy Foundation to assist with key elements of medical education such as faculty and curriculum development is really important.
Why do you think you were selected for this position?
I think Macy has seen that the people they’ve invested in at the University of Michigan have really capitalized on that support and done the creative new work that was envisioned by the program. The first Macy professorship went to Dr. James O. Woolliscroft. He went on to do transformational work in medical education that lead to his subsequent appointment as our dean. In fact, he is the only sitting dean at a top tier school whose scholarship has focused almost exclusively on medical education. A significant part of his academic success is due to the support and nurturing that came from the Macy Foundation.
Accountability for medical education dollars is very linked to deliverables or things that we can readily measure. But often these are not very risky or really new ideas. This professorship gives me a chance to have some creative space and resources to do things that haven’t already been mapped out. That’s where I think this professorship will advance my career.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Endowed professorships are the highest honor an institution awards it faculty and often these are for basic fundamental research, which is very useful for the academic enterprise. To have a visible elite award for education sends a very loud message to how much it is valued and what an important role it plays in the academic enterprise.