Tufts University School of Medicine Dean Transition

December 16, 2009

To: Colleagues and Members of the Tufts Community

From: Larry Bacow, President, and Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Senior Vice President

Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, has announced that he will be stepping down in order to take a newly created position at Merck & Co.  Dean Rosenblatt has led the medical school with distinction for six years - significantly longer than the average tenure of a medical school dean - and the school is in a strong position thanks to his leadership.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dean Rosenblatt for his service to Tufts. His accomplishments are many, and we are proud to have had him in the administration. We have benefited from the experience he gained in significant academic and leadership roles before his arrival at Tufts in 2003, including as George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, President of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and Senior Vice President for Research at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories. During his deanship, he has worked to recruit outstanding faculty, forge closer ties with our clinical affiliates, improve the facilities for faculty research and student life and learning, and advance diversity. Dean Rosenblatt has also continued some of his ground-breaking bone research while at Tufts - leading his faculty by example.

We have asked Vice Dean Harris Berman, M.D. to serve as Interim Dean of the School of Medicine starting December 21, 2009. Dr. Berman is an accomplished medical leader and we are delighted that he has accepted this new challenge. He received his medical degree from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and has had a distinguished career in global health.  He also served for 17 years as Chief Executive Officer of Tufts Health Plan. Dr. Berman came to Tufts University School of Medicine in 2003 as Chair of the then Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, and subsequently became Dean of Public Health and Professional Degree Programs. In 2008 he was elevated to Vice Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs for TUSM, and Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine. Dr. Berman has made important contributions to the medical school and to the university, including the establishment of biomedical partnerships with institutions overseas. He is looking forward to working closely with our affiliated hospitals.

We will turn our attention to the organization of a search for a new dean after the start of the new year. With the help of the deans, faculty, and staff, we expect this to be a smooth transition for Tufts School of Medicine.  Please join us in wishing Dean Rosenblatt all the best in his new venture at Merck.

To: Students, Faculty Colleagues, Staff and Friends

From: Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., Dean and Professor of Physiology and Medicine

I write to inform you of my decision to step down as Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM).  I have accepted the offer of a newly created position at Merck & Co., Inc. as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. The nature of this opportunity and its timing seems right.

The decision to leave Tufts has not been easy for me because of the wonderful students, faculty and staff at TUSM. I have been so proud to be a part of the academic medicine and research community of TUSM and its teaching hospitals. 

We have worked hard together these past six years. Much has been accomplished in the face of formidable challenges.   We should be especially proud of the development of a strategic plan, “focused excellence”, as it serves as a blueprint for the school. We made major strides towards improving our research and educational facilities, including a new campus center and state-of-the-art medical simulation center, and renovation of laboratories and research buildings.

TUSM’s partnership with Tufts Medical Center has never been stronger due to the collaboration we’ve enjoyed with Ellen Zane, the extraordinary leader of Tufts Medical Center. In fact, our long-standing partnerships with all the major Tufts-affiliated hospitals were strengthened by the appointment of academic deans.  And we were delighted to welcome our newest partner, Maine Medical Center, into the Tufts family.

We set our sights on the future by recruiting both strong tenure-track and senior faculty members in several departments, and new basic and clinical department chairpersons. We also enhanced our commitment to diversity and multicultural affairs, and made major improvements to our admissions process.

TUSM has been the recipient of many grant awards but one of our proudest moments came when we were selected by the NIH to establish a prestigious Clinical Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI).  And we recently launched a new curriculum while expanding our global health and active citizenship programs.
 
Many of these accomplishments would not have been possible without the success of our development team that raised over $100 million in the capital campaign.  

I will always be grateful to Larry Bacow, the President of Tufts University, and Jamshed Bharucha, the Provost, and the Tufts Trustees for entrusting me with stewardship of TUSM.  The Board of Overseers, composed of wise and dedicated individuals, provided excellent advice and critically important philanthropic support. It will always be one of the great honors and satisfactions of my life to have had the opportunity to lead this remarkable school, one of the “jewels” of American medicine.

Parting with the “Dean’s Team”-- simply the best team I’ve ever worked with —will be most difficult of all.

I will be leaving TUSM on December 20 but will continue to live in the Boston area and hope to keep my ties with many of you.  In a separate communication, the university will announce the appointment of my esteemed colleague, Dr. Harris Berman, as interim dean.

Change is part of the world of medicine.  TUSM is headed in the right direction.  I look forward to following closely the students, faculty and staff of TUSM as they pursue a path of excellence and make major contributions to the future of science and medicine.