Hansen Chosen for National Leadership Program

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 18, 2011) – Dr. Wendy Hansen, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Kentucky, has been chosen to participate in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Hansen is one of only 54 senior faculty across the country named to ELAM's 2011-12 class of fellows.

"I am very happy to be chosen as a fellow in the ELAM Program for Women," Hansen said. "I would like to thank Dean Emery Wilson and the senior leadership for their support of and investment in me. I look forward to participating over the coming year."

ELAM is the only national program dedicated to preparing senior women faculty for positions of leadership at academic health centers. While the number of women graduating from health professional schools across the country continues to climb, the number of women holding positions of leadership in academic health centers lags severely behind.

ELAM’s mission is to increase the number of women in senior academic leadership positions, where they can ultimately help change the culture of academic health organizations to become more accepting of different perspectives and responsive to societal needs and expectations.

In order to be accepted into the program, each fellow must be nominated and supported by the dean or other senior official of her institution, and ELAM continues to cultivate strong partnerships with participating institutions throughout the year-long fellowship. One aspect of this relationship is the curricular requirement to conduct an Institutional Action Project, developed in collaboration with the fellows’ dean or other senior official. These action projects are designed to address an institutional or departmental need or priority.

“We are extremely excited to see the impact these women will have on their institutions as they work through the ELAM curriculum and develop their action projects,” said Dr. Diane Magrane, director of Drexel’s International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics, which hosts the ELAM program. “The projects the fellows conduct not only help them understand the challenges facing academic health centers and the skills a leader must possess to address these challenges, but also often result in concrete changes at their institutions.”

The work for this incoming class begins in May with online assignments and community building activities that continue through the end of the program in April 2012. Fellows begin the first of three week-long, in-residence sessions when they meet for the first time at the ACE Conference Center in Lafayette Hill, Pa., on Sept. 10, 2011.

MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Perry, (859) 257-1754, ext. 225; or allison.perry@uky.edu