A role model for women in medicine

Tue, 16 May 2023 09:47:00 EDT

By Stephanie Smaglo

The Drexel University College of Medicine introduced a new leadership training program for women in healthcare last year, and EVMS’ Marissa Galicia-Castillo, MD, MSEd, is one of its first esteemed graduates.

Dr. Galicia-Castillo (MD'97, Internal Medicine Residency '00), the John Franklin Distinguished Chair for Geriatrics and Director of the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, graduated April 27 from the Executive Leadership in Health Care (ELH) program, a fellowship that provides the concepts, tools and skills that enable women leaders to bring their full potential to healthcare organizations.

The ELH program builds on the medical school’s prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM), established in 1995, and is targeted toward rising women who are established experts in their domain, have a track record of achievement in clinical program development and have aspirations to lead at the executive level. Other EVMS women to complete the program include former professors Bonnie Dattel, MD, Christine Matson, MD, and Janet McElhaney, MD.

As a graduate of the program, Dr. Galicia-Castillo is connected to a network of over 1,200 alumnae in leadership positions at 269 institutions in North America and beyond. The women represent the fields of medicine, dentistry, public health and pharmacy.

“Although many strides have been made for women in medicine,” says Dr. Galicia-Castillo, “there are still many disparities when looking at the level of executive leadership. The ELH program really opened my eyes to the different issues that face not only women in medicine, but for inclusion overall. Most important is to be aware and identify areas where more inclusion can be established. Having many different perspectives can help improve different aspects of treatment and care.”

The year-long ELH hybrid program launched in June 2022 with a focus on building a community of women leaders to address emerging issues in healthcare. The intensive work included three weeklong in-person sessions and an Institutional Action Project.

Dr. Galicia-Castillo worked alongside a team of physician leaders in interventional nephrology, gynecology, neurosurgery, medical education, anesthesia, internal medicine and dermatology to “save” a medical school.

“We reviewed briefs, spreadsheets and a wide variety of data to develop a plan to ensure the medical school not only survived, but thrived,” she says. “At the end of this exercise, we all had a different role and had to present to a leadership team consisting of a dean, president, COO, CFO and CMO.”

The class was also split into Learning Communities that had different projects throughout the year, including a “Total Leadership” initiative, tabletop exercises and a financial simulation with a hypothetical hospital system aiming to move toward more value-based models. Dr. Galicia-Castillo says she discovered a great deal about herself through the experience.

“I have learned what my strengths are as well as areas that I can enhance,” she says. “Obtaining a better understanding of the healthcare environment from the business side is important as we develop programs to better our community.

“In both geriatrics and palliative medicine,” she continues, “there are unique issues in building these types of programs, and I feel much better prepared to address those challenges so that we can bring our ideas to reality to improve care for all of our community, especially our most vulnerable — our older adults and people who have serious illness.”

When asked to share advice for young women considering the field of medicine, particularly leadership roles, Dr. Galicia-Castillo remarked on the increasingly complex nature of healthcare.

“We all want to ‘help’ and ‘do what’s right’ for our patients and families,” she says. “It is important that we think about our impact for a population and think from a systems standpoint to ensure the best care not only for a group, but ultimately, an individual person and their family.”

A history of local leadership

Dr. Galicia-Castillo is a role model for women in academic medicine.

She currently serves at EVMS as the John Franklin Distinguished Chair for Geriatrics and the Director of the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, and she directs the Brock Fellowship for Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She also serves as Medical Director for the Sentara Norfolk General and CarePlex Palliative Medicine Team and Lake Taylor Palliative Care Medicine Team.

Previously at EVMS she led the Lillian & Gideon Welles Grime Fellowship in Geriatrics, was instrumental in creating the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship and developed a special Geriatrics-Internal Medicine (GeriMed) residency program. She has also served as Chair of the Ethics Committee at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and as President of the Norfolk Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Galicia-Castillo grew up in Norfolk and attended Booker T. Washington High School, graduating in the Medical and Health Specialties Program, which is now a collaboration between Maury High School and EVMS. Through a unique BS-MD program, she attended Old Dominion University for three years, completed her fourth year at EVMS and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from ODU on her way to becoming a doctor. She earned her Doctor of Medicine at EVMS followed by completion there of her internship, residency and fellowship. She later earned a Master of Science in Education from ODU as part of a Geriatrics Academic Career Award.

This year Dr. Galicia-Castillo will lead EVMS graduates forward as Chief Marshal during the formal Commencement Exercises.

 

Pictured at top: Marissa Galicia-Castillo, MD, MSEd (center) with Sara Jo Grethlein, MD, MBA, Associate Director of the ELH program, and Nancy Spector, MD, Executive Director of the ELAM/ELH programs and the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women's Health and Leadership and Senior Vice Dean for Faculty and Professor of Pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine.