Dear Colleagues -
While there are many opportunities to recognize our faculty and students at milestone events such as Match Day, commencement, and numerous faculty awards and professorships, there are few formal ways that recognize our staff. That is why I was so pleased to see that President Kaler is formally recognizing our staff today on National Employee Appreciation Day.
With deep gratitude, I want to thank our staff for their dedication and sacrifices these past two years.
By the numbers, the School of Medicine has more than 80 departments and centers, 7000 full and part-time faculty across five campuses and 2200 students. Our staff is the glue connecting these many tentacles.
And this "glue" was evident in particular during the early days of the pandemic. With no roadmap, staff overnight pivoted to remote work, setting up makeshift offices and creating new ways to ensure that our day-day operations continued seamlessly. All while many not only were balancing work-from-home but also those with school-age children school-from-home. At the same time, many also experienced physical and emotional isolation as they were cut off from their work, social and family ties.
During the State of the School, I shared with you that one of my priorities is to ensure that the talent we have in our administrative roles does not leave the university because of a lack of opportunity for advancement or competitive compensation. I continue to prioritize this need, and I am open to your suggestions, either individually or through the staff council. We had a very productive meeting earlier this week, and I look forward to initiating some activities as a result of that dialogue. That will include a look at our needs, organizational structure, job descriptions and standard operating procedures so we can standardize our approach to both daily and more infrequent activities. All of this detail reflects the incredible importance of better recognizing all that our staff accomplishes.
For each member of our staff, again, thank you for all that you do on a daily basis to help us all achieve our mission. I encourage each of you to reach out and thank our staff for their dedication allowing us to collectively work together to achieve our mission to educate the next generation of healthcare leaders and advance research discoveries to the bedside.
Thank you for all you do,
Stan
Stan Gerson, MD
Dean and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs
School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University
Director, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (acting)
Director, National Center for Regenerative Medicine