DANA CROSBY, MD, MPH
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April 2022Chair, Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Ill.
My journey to becoming a doctor wasn’t the typical path many people take. I didn’t always know I wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t have any physicians or healthcare workers in my family. Neither of my parents went to college, but they’re both incredibly hard workers—my mom worked as a secretary at a casket factory and my dad works at the water treatment plant in our small hometown in western Pennsylvania.
In high school, I liked science and math and people. In college, I realized the way to marry my passion for science and helping people was to be a doctor. Toward the end of college, I shadowed somebody in medical school and just knew that’s what I was meant to do. I wouldn’t have gotten here without my parents’ constant support. I owe my success to them entirely.
Becoming department chair was never part of my career plan, to be completely honest. I came from a smaller academic program and was given opportunities early on. If I get an unexpected opportunity, I’m the kind of person who will work really hard to make sure I do that job well. Early in my career, I was given the opportunity to be the residency program director, which I still am. I’m introverted and quiet, but I learned that I can still be a mentor and a leader. When I began practicing academic medicine and stepped into that program director role, I learned there’s a lot of value to being an introvert. There’s more than one way to be a leader and to help people through their careers.
Historically, we’ve focused a lot on didactic lectures, where a person stands in front of a classroom and delivers a lecture, and learners sit and try their best to absorb it. It’s well documented that this isn’t the best way for adults to learn. I think we’ll continue to innovate the way we teach, whether it’s through simulation or flipped classrooms, both of which have become very popular. I also think we’ll continue to advance in terms of surgical skills and models. There’s a lot of technology we can utilize to do all sorts of things that we could never have imagined in the past. We can make high-fidelity models that learners can practice on before engaging in actual patient care. I think there’s a lot that will happen in the intersection of research and education.