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Leadership Changes Announced For Morehouse School of Medicine

July 1st, 2013

The president of the Morehouse School of Medicine announced his plans for retirement this past week.

It won’t be until next year that Dr. John Maupin will leave as the institution’s fifth president.

The transition in leadership also brings a first for the medical school.

Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice credits her mother for always imparting words of wisdom.

“There were no limits because you were African American or black. There were no limits because you were a woman. The limits that we would have would be self-imposed if we didn’t work hard.”

This time next year, Dr. Montgomery Rice will officially become the 6^th president of the Morehouse School of Medicine.

And she’ll be the first African-American woman in the nation to become CEO of an independent medical school.

Dr. Montgomery Rice says she welcomes the opportunity to help continue the institution’s many missions in addressing health disparities.

“That’s really based on the fact of how we deliver care, where we deliver care and then where we focus our research.”

A Harvard-educated obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice admits there’s a challenge in sustaining the medical school’s fiscal health.

“The institution is challenged like most institutions with sequestration, but we also have to be more operational, efficient and effective. And that by I mean, we have to cut down on waste, we have to utilize technology and then we have to measure our outcomes.”

Dr. Montgomery Rice adds fundraising will also be a priority.

That’s in order to give more scholarships to medical students.