Dean's Update
May 2, 2025 - Aron Sousa, MD
Above (l-r): Aron, Harvey Alter, MD, and Chaz Hong MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Medicine, at the Scott Swisher MD Memorial Lecture this week.
Friends,
My week started with Harvey J. Alter MD’s, visit for the 2025 Scott Swisher, MD Memorial Lecture. Dr. Alter’s life’s work has been investigating and helping discover the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which causes millions of cases of cirrhosis and hepatic carcinoma yearly around the globe. In his decades at the NIH, he and his team collected an astonishing biorepository of samples from people with what was called “transfusion related hepatitis” that then came to be known as “non-A, non-B hepatitis” and finally identified as a specific flavivirus now called Hepatitis C. There would be no way to collect and maintain these kinds of samples and do the longitudinal experiments his team did with a series of NIH grants at a university or in industry. This was work that could only be done at the NIH clinics with the intramural funding programs in Bethesda. Or at least it could be done then, no promises with the current NIH funding and staffing situation. Those same collections were invaluable in establishing a good test for HCV. Now there is a well-tolerated, 97% successful treatment for HCV. Dr. Alter’s legacy includes the millions of lives saved by testing for and treatment of HCV. Dr. Alter and colleagues won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for his lifetime of work on the project. More on Dr. Alter a paragraph or two in the future.
This week, Jerry Kooiman retired as our Assistant Dean and Chief External Relations Officer. I have already written about his remarkable contributions to the college, our students, and the state. I’m delighted to report that Rosalynn Bliss, MSW, former mayor of Grand Rapids, will be stepping into that role. Many of you will recognize Rosalynn from her years of thoughtful, hands-on leadership as mayor of Grand Rapids—a non-partisan, elected role where she built a legacy of collaboration, innovation, and deep community engagement.
Rosalynn brings that same spirit to MSU. She’s someone who doesn’t just talk about partnership—she lives it. And as we continue to strengthen our work across the state—from the Upper Peninsula and rural townships to Flint, Detroit, and everywhere in between—she’ll be a key bridge between the university and our communities.
Her appointment reflects the ongoing collaboration between the college, the offices of the president and provost, and government relations. With Rosalynn on board, our federal and state engagement strategies are in good hands.
You can learn more about her Spartan roots and professional achievements in the college’s announcement of her appointment. Please join me in welcoming Rosalynn back home to MSU.
Late in the week, I had the joy of meeting up with Judith Lin, MD, our division chief of vascular surgery, as she completed a prestigious executive development program at Drexel. She clearly acquired much value from the program and has been helping move forward our vascular surgery program as a part of her program project. For my part, I learned a lot from the various projects presented and had the chance to catch up with other deans as we all manage our way through these times.
Just a note of appreciation and support for President Guskiewicz in these times. Recently, he joined other AACU presidents in a call for constructive engagement as institutions that “share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.” Leadership matters, especially in interesting times.
Back to Dr. Alter. One of Dr. Alter’s first mentors was Dr. Scott Swisher, when both were at the University of Rochester. Dr. Alter went on in his education to the NIH, and Dr. Swisher came to the College of Human Medicine to be the founding chair of the Department of Medicine. It was a delight that Department of Medicine Chair Chaz Hong, MD, PhD, discovered this mentor-mentee relationship and brought Dr. Alter to the university to celebrate Dr. Swisher and his legacy. The visit reminded many of us about the intellectual enjoyment that comes from being part of academic medicine. At one point, Dr. Alter read a poem he wrote including a joke that during his schooling and training no one, including he himself, would have predicted that he would win a Nobel Prize. His story is a lesson that history is a series of contingencies we cannot predict even within our own lives, and that you never know how your mentorship and teaching can change the course of someone’s career, alter the future of medicine, help cure a disease, and save millions of lives.
Serving the people with you,
Aron
Aron Sousa, MD, FACP
Dean, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine