Dean's Corner

Kelsey Martin, MD, PhD, Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

A Word From Dean Kelsey Martin

I am pleased to share with you the 2019 Annual Report of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM). Reflecting on the past academic year fills me with great admiration for our amazing staff, faculty, trainees and students – and for the profound impact that their contributions have on our mission to heal humankind through leading edge care, research, education and community engagement.

As Dean, I am fortunate to have a panoramic view of the DGSOM community and the way that each of your contributions come together, through great collaboration, determination and optimism, to transform our school, our community and our world.

In the last year alone, your passion for our mission has led to new and exciting breakthroughs that have uncovered the cause of human disease; your support and expertise have provided a generation of physicians with the knowledge and perspective they need to provide compassionate, evidence-based care; your commitment to open minded scientific research has fostered the type of collaborative, data-driven environment that inspires our scientists and ensures biomedical discoveries well into the future; and your humanism has created new opportunities to engage with and improve the health and well-being of populations near and far.

VIEW FULL REPORT

Overarching Goals

Looking ahead, I remain focused on six overarching goals, which you will find highlighted throughout this report:

1. Ensuring that academic medicine continues to thrive at UCLA as we face an evolving balance between today’s health care environment and the world of academic biomedical research and education.
2. Fostering interdisciplinary efforts, particularly activities that bridge clinical medicine with academic scholarship in the basic sciences, social sciences, data sciences and engineering, and efforts that benefit our local, national and global communities.
3. Increasing the financial transparency and health of the school by establishing a modern funds flow model for UCLA Health (UCLA health system and the DGSOM).
4. Transforming our culture at the DGSOM through the Cultural North Star, a shared framework that articulates our values and serves as a guide for the work we do and the way that we interact with one another to ensure that everyone in the DGSOM community feels welcome and valued.
5. Enhancing our mentorship and leadership training programs in a manner that promotes diversity inclusion and provides growth opportunities for all DGSOM employees.
6. Elevating the school’s internal and external communications.