VCU Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation faculty member selected for national women’s leadership program

By Malorie Burkett

Janet Niemeier, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, has been selected for the 2009-2010 class of fellows in the Hedwig van Amerigen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine. 

ELAM is a national program that prepares senior women faculty for leadership at academic health centers. Niemeier was selected along with 52 other women who represent 49 medical, dental and public health schools.

"I am truly honored to be selected for ELAM,” Niemeier says. “I look forward to growing as a leader through my work and interaction with many other women who, like me, may be unsure what skills and knowledge are most effective for pushing the glass ceiling up to make more room. 

“I plan to work hard to acquire leadership skills that will, in turn, hopefully make me a more valuable team member in my department and university,” she added.

During their year with ELAM, fellows gain a broader and deeper knowledge of the challenges facing academic health centers through meetings with national leaders in the field, interactions with their peers in the program and interviews with a wide range of senior officers at their own institutions.

Fellows also undertake a long-term project that addresses an institutional need or goal while providing an opportunity for leadership and greater visibility.

ELAM’s mission is to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions and to change the culture of academic health centers to become more inclusive of different perspectives and more responsive to changing social agendas.

Twenty percent of its graduates currently serve in the highest-level leadership ranks, from associate dean through university president.  For more information on the ELAM program curriculum, faculty and participants, visit http://www.drexelmed.edu/Home/OtherPrograms/ExecutiveLeadershipinAcademicMedicine.aspx.