It doesn’t necessarily take a crystal ball to see the bigger future of otolaryngology, but the details can sometimes be a little murky. ENTtoday asked four newly minted chairs of otolaryngology departments how they made it to their positions, what they feel is the most important aspect of leadership, and what they feel the future holds for academic medicine. Below are their answers, edited for length and clarity.
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April 2022
Work hard, be kind, and do the right thing.
NAUSHEEN JAMAL, MD
Chair, Otolaryngology– Head and Neck Surgery
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Edinburg, Texas
I’m the eldest of three girls. My parents immigrated from Bangladesh to Australia and then to the United States, and I learned to speak English in preschool. I went to college in Philadelphia, medical school in Houston, did my otolaryngology residency in New York, and earned a fellowship in laryngology in Los Angeles. After my fellowship, I was a faculty member at Temple University at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, and really enjoyed being involved in education. After a year or two, I took over as clerkship director and really enjoyed mentoring medical students.
Next, I became the associate director for the residency program and, later, program director. I always had a strong interest in education and great mentorship from my chair, who recognized that was something I enjoyed. He helped me grow into those roles.
When my chair left to become dean at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, he recruited me to serve as designated institutional official (DIO) for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which oversees and accredits all of the graduate medical education programs at an institution. I’m now also one of seven women in the U.S. who chair otolaryngology departments.
There are three rules I have for myself when I’m wondering how to address a situation or make a decision. The first is to work very hard at addressing that situation. The second is to be kind when, for example, I have to tell someone something they may not want to hear. And the third is to do the right thing, even if it’s going to make someone unhappy with me. When we’re in leadership roles, our goal isn’t to make everybody happy. This was something I had to learn the hard way when I transitioned from being a program director of a single department to DIO for the ACGME. I had to interact with people from all backgrounds and cultures in that role.