President and CEO

A Letter from the Chairman of the Board
of Trustees, President, and Dean

The 21st century has transported academic medicine to a new, exciting frontier of scientific discovery and patient care. Advances in genetics and molecular and cellular biology, among others, are diminishing the traditional boundaries between basic science disciplines and are increasing the interface between the basic and clinical sciences.

The rapid discoveries in biomedicine and the changing nature of our clinical practice have challenged us to rethink how we will approach our missions of education, research, patient care and service during the five years of our new strategic plan, Commitment to Excellence.

The Medical College of Wisconsin has a history of providing outstanding medical and graduate education, conducting novel biomedical research, providing innovative and compassionate patient care, and performing community service. The rapid evolution of science and technology requires that we expand our traditional mission structure and engage in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary education, research, patient care and service.

Towards this end, we are recasting our missions of education, research, patient care and service to those of education, discovery, patient care and community engagement. The new nomenclature reflects the blending boundaries of basic and clinical sciences and meets the challengesof an interdisciplinary environment and the expansion of our community initiatives.

Michael J. Dunn, MD, Steven J. Smither, and T. Michael Bolger, JD

Our mission of education expands upon the traditional definition of student and the didactic learning environment to include assessing the acquisition of skills and knowledge of the learner. Education is a lifelong commitment that extends beyond our campus, into our community and professional pursuits.

Our mission of discovery encompasses research, scholarship, and creative activities across our basic science and clinical departments that reveals new knowledge and integrates that knowledge into our scientific, clinical, educational, and community programs.

Our mission of patient care incorporates knowledge and discovery to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury through the provision of innovative, personalized care.

Our mission of community engagement represents the partnership of the College's knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, patient care, and creative activity; enhance teaching and learning; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the health of our community.
These missions will guide the College's activities and priorities.

The strategic initiatives that follow emerge from the collaborative efforts of our faculty members, staff, trainees and students. The development of the new plan has been led by a strategic steering committee and four strategic task forces. To arrive at this distillation, the steering committee analyzed the feedback from the strategic planning survey, reports of the four strategic task forces, as well as the comments from the larger community. The strategic actions in this document do not include specific formulas. Rather, they provide the frame-work for subsequent tactical decisions and implementation. 
 

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