Dean's Update
November 1, 2024 - Aron Sousa, MD
(Above) Aron and Patti Copley, retired UP community administrator, at the Dean's Town Hall in Marquette.
Friends,
Those who frequent the Dean’s Update know I am chuffed about the 1964 Project, which aims at hiring faculty focused on research that addresses health disparities. This project is part of our Grand Challenge to address health disparities and has been folded into the university’s 1855 Professorship program. I’ve said that a lot of times. This week, we announce the request for proposals for 2025 and celebrate our first 1964 Project hire, 1855 Professor Nadia Abuelezam. Proposals are due December 15, 2024, and we expect reviews will be done by February 1, 2025. And, if you are thinking of submitting, good luck!
This week, the 60th Anniversary caravan made its way to the Upper Peninsula and Marquette. For our Upper Peninsula campus, this is our 50th anniversary year! I love going to Marquette; it may be our happiest campus. The people and work delight me. The campus houses our wilderness medicine elective, our pioneering Rural Physician Program as part of the Leadership in Rural Medicine Certificate, and our important rural psychiatry residency program supported by the state and the psychiatry residency based in Lansing. The state’s MIDOCs program funds these psychiatry residents, who start in Lansing and complete the second half of their residencies in Marquette. The residency costs are paid through the program and the residents themselves get significant debt relief. The program has increased the number of practicing psychiatrists in the UP from six to nine. It’s not a lot of people, but we make a remarkable impact.
The campus in Marquette anchors our work across the peninsula from the Sault to Ironwood, Copper Harbor to Escanaba. We have early assurance programs with Bay College in Escanaba and Bay Mills Community College in Brimley. Both of those are part of our Indigenous Pathway program, which spans the state. More than a third of all physicians in the UP have trained in either the college or in our family medicine residency in Marquette, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Which is to say, the college’s people are busy in the UP. You betcha, eh.
Don’t forget to vote and tell your friends to as well.
Serving the people with you,
Aron
Aron Sousa, MD, FACP
Dean, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine