Q&A: Dr. Richard Hart
Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, was appointed chancellor
and chief executive officer of LLU
 As Loma Linda's first chancellor, Dr. Hart welcomes graduates, families, and friends to the 2001 School of Medicine commencement ceremonies in May. |
What do you see your role is as chancellor in the new alignment of Loma Linda institutions?
That role has been thought through carefully, and I feel very comfortable with it. Dr. Behrens and I are philosophically quite similar. Dr. Behrens continues to carry a dual role, as president and chief executive officer of Loma Linda University Medical Center and also as president and chief executive officer of Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center, our parent corporation. I will be responsible for all the routine activities on the University side. When there are larger issues where we can benefit from Lyn's expertise, we will elicit her--and others'--involvement in making those decisions.
This alignment is a maturation of our system at Loma Linda. We have
regular weekly meetings with the four key officers of LLUAHSC--Dr.
Behrens, Donald G. Pursley, DBA, executive vice president and chief financial
officer, LLUAHSC; Brian S. Bull, MD, executive vice president of LLUAHSC
and dean of the School of Medicine, who is responsible for the faculty
practice plans; and me. These four people are respoonsible for the three
main corporations at Loma Linda--the University, Medical Center, and
physician practice groups. All of these entities are so interdependent
that one's success depends upon the others. I certainly feel both
the support and the encouragement of that group.
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Top:On his first
mission to Africa in 1972, Dr. Hart becomes acquainted with an
imposing python. |
What do you see are Loma Linda's greatest strengths?
The most significant ingredient Loma Linda has is its credibility--its integrity. This is real and tangible and represents the most value to our Church--more so than our dollars, or our people, or our programs. I believe that Loma Linda University makes our Church proud around the world.
How do we take that integrity and use it appropriately?
It is here to be used--not just protected. One of this University's biggest challenges is to determine the kinds of projects, players, and programs that can appropriately capitalize on our integrity--to not jeopardize it, but make it available to the world Church. We are already involved on the world scene, and we need to expand our role delicately and do it correctly, and that's going to be a big challenge.
Clearly, the concept of service is one of our strengths. We need to do a better job of coordinating our service activities,
however, by making them available to more students and making faculty feel more involved.
In the past, we have tended to get involved with community activities because we felt that is what we should do. We brought the commitment aspect
to community service. We need to also develop an academic understanding of community service. We have not made this an item of scholarly inquiry, as many universities have. We should do much more in terms of looking at the implications of our community activities and the impact we are having. One of my hopes is that we can begin to coordinate our projects on a University- and Medical Center-wide basis to make them more effective.
At the open house last October celebrating the five-year celebration of the opening of SAC-Norton, we heard from patients, students, and staff about what it is like to be a patient at SAC. It struck me then, in a way I had never sensed before, that it's not our obligation to care for these patients, it's our privilege to care for them!
We need to make the transition from "I need to do this because
I'm a Christian and this is what Christians do" to really feeling
what a privilege it is to be involved with helping people. Even some individuals
who serve abroad do it because they think it is what they should do. They
don't really capture the true sense of what a privilege it is to serve
people.
 Dr. Hart greets the LLU student body for the first time as chancellor at the weekly chapel service. |
How does one teach service?
Much of education, particularly in the business we are in, must be experiential. You can't just teach it in the classroom!
In addition, students today experience information overload--they have heard it all before.
This is where engaging people directly is critically important.
In SIMS, for example, we really do precious little that has a lasting impact out there. We are not curing anything. What we are doing is giving our students an educational experience. We recognize its value as life-changing. We know that once students graduate, some alumni indeed serve abroad, but all will have been impacted in regard to service.
Another concern is what I refer to as "Tourist Christianity."
Increasingly, I see people assuming that one-, two-, or three- week visits
by a group building a school or church, or even seeing patients, is making
an impact on the world. The world's development problems will not be solved
only by short-term service. We need alumni with the expertise and commitment
to engage in long-term development.
How did you become as committed as you are to service?
I have been asked that a few times, and wish I knew the answer--but
I really do not! I grew up in a rural community in northern Idaho and
read National Geographics and heard mission stories, but had done nothing
more than a trip to Mexico until I was a student missionary from Walla
Walla College (College Place, Washington). My parents are good solid Church-going
people, but they had never served in the mission field.
 Dr. Hart has served Loma Linda University since 1972. |
I do remember sitting in a class my first year of medical school, listening to a professor lecture about international health and the World Health Organization and some of the issues it faced. I said to myself, "That's me! That is where I want to go!" It was at that time that I decided to start working on my MPH simultaneously.
I already had my private pilot license--and one of my classmates had his instructor's rating--so we would sometimes skip lab and work on my instrument rating. I was ready to be a flying doctor in the mission field! I am not sure where this drive came from. It does seem obvious to me as a logical outgrowth of what Christianity is all about. It feels right and natural.
Is a world view essential to fulfilling Loma Linda's mission?
The process of globalization is here, no question. I can go home at night and answer 10 to 15 e-mail messages from all over the world, and the next morning have responses back. With globalization also comes distance-learning opportunities. We have been working hard on this area, but don't have it quite together yet. But we are getting closer.
A related trend is the tremendous interest by Adventist universities around the world in training health professionals--allied health, public health, nutrition, nursing, medicine, and dentistry. We have a very challenging task ahead of us. How do we take the greatest repository of expertise in this Church--right here--and appropriately support, refine, and assist those entities as they move into this arena? We can save our Church a lot of mistakes if we do it right. But if we refuse to be actively involved, programs may be started that struggle for years and never quite get on their feet. So with globalization and the growing interest in health-professional training, it is critical that Loma Linda is willing to run some risks with these Adventist institutions as they look at where they want to go.
A critical issue we face in the domestic arena is a growing interest in the spiritual aspect of health care and recognition of the wholeness concept. Of course, Loma Linda has played a role in this field for years and has evolved an ethos--a way of looking at this--that feels quite good to us. Others are struggling to figure out exactly where to go. What is it; what is it not? What will stand the test of time; what won't? Loma Linda needs to stand up and be a real player, particularly as a theologically based scientific institution. We need to say not only what whole-person care--integrated care--is, but also what it is not.
Loma Linda University has a cohesive philosophy that sticks together better than anything else one can find. We need to be proactive in reflecting our understanding of these issues.
How do you see Loma Linda growing?
We are committed to a steady, planned growth at Loma Linda. For instance, we are starting a School of Pharmacy by the summer of 2002. Other new programs we are considering will be at the interface between existing programs. A lot of growth in health care today combines majors or degrees, because creative things happen at the interfaces between disciplines.
We should not be growing just for growth's sake, however. We need to look at what we are specifically trying to accomplish and focus on that. We do need to be ready for the next wave of students that are predicted, as the baby boomers' kids are now starting to graduate from high school.
What is the importance of research at Loma Linda?
Our externally funded research has more than doubled in the last five years. An infrastructure has been put in place that can support and nourish research. We may never be known as a research university, as some are, but we can make a significant contribution in focused areas. We are identifying areas that are either of particular interest to us, or in which we have particular expertise--such as our infant heart transplant program, proton therapy, the Adventist Health Study, and the Center for Perinatal Biology--and we are working diligently to grow additional areas.
We will always maintain our educational focus, but it is necessary for the University to have increasing areas of research expertise to nurture our growth. It is becoming much more complex--and much more expensive--to manage research than in the past, but we are committed to growing this area.
Is an education still affordable for students wanting to come here?
The whole question of student support and tuition rates is of concern at Loma Linda. While we rank fairly competitively with other private colleges, we need to be very cautious because we are starting to lose students who should be here--but who cannot afford to be here.
Two initiatives are happening regarding finances. The first is to control, as carefully as we can, any percentage increase in tuition rates. When tuition goes up too much, students may make it through school, but then have such a huge debt that their employment options are limited. When they graduate, they often cannot do what they want to do--or what society needs them to do.
Second, the individual Loma Linda schools are working on scholarship funds for selected qualified students. Managing our student debt level is important if we are going to give students the flexibility to serve where they would like to.
Is enrollment a concern at LLU?
Loma Linda--and the entire nation--benefited from a decade of growing interest in the health professions. This long, steady period of interest peaked a couple of years ago, and then in most disciplines, a flattening of applicants occurred.
Medicine and dentistry had a sufficient backlog of applicants and did not feel it as much, but most other disciplines did. The trend appears to have tipped back upward again. It looks like this fall's numbers will show an increase.
Frankly, I think it was the strong economy that started pulling students away. Now, with the collapse of the dot coms and a few other things, students realize that they do need an education after all.
The two biggest areas of shortage projected in this country are nursing and pharmacy. So, in addition to starting our own School of Pharmacy, we are encouraging the School of Nursing to expand.
We are committed to taking all of the qualified Adventist students who apply. In addition, more and more students from other Christian persuasions are telling us, "I want to be a part of LLU; I like what I see! This is the kind of training I am after." So they ask to be part of Loma Linda, and to me that is what God placed us in this world to do. We should attract the nations of this world to say, "Let me walk beside you for a while." It's really a blessing for us as we share with the world.
This University is proactive in saying who we are and what we stand for. In a philosophy of public health class that
I teach, time after time a student will say, "These are the kinds of values I came to Loma Linda for; I appreciate being here. I've been to many secular institutions, and I never received this kind of education." It's part of our mission to help people to understand what we are all about.
Will Seventh-day Adventist students still be a priority at LLU?
While we increase our overall recruiting efforts, we are seeking methods of reaching potential students who are members of or attend an Adventist church, but are not a part of the Adventist educational system. In the past, many times these students have not been reached by our general recruiting activities that focused only on students attending Adventist academies and colleges.
We plan to communicate with pastors and others as we seek the most efficient and effective approaches to this important segment of the Loma Linda constituency.
Do alumni have a role to play in this institution's future?
Absolutely. We are seeking successful ways to keep our alumni connected to
the institution. Loma Linda University's students and faculty benefit from strong alumni contact, input, and interest. This vital connection is just as important as their financial support.
In conjunction with Dr. Behrens and our various school alumni associations,
we will soon be initiating additional ways to communicate and meet with
our alumni. You will be hearing more about this initiative in coming months.
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Meet Loma Linda's first chancellor Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, who was named chancellor and chief executive officer of Loma Linda University in February, 2001, certainly has his roots deeply planted in Loma Linda. He was born in 1945 at the Loma Linda Sanitarium and Hospital, son of Lewis (a School of Medicine alumnus from 1949) and Ruth Hart. His brother, Kenneth--who would go on to graduate from the School of Medicine in 1969--completed the family. Dr. Hart's early years were spent in the Pacific Northwest. Upper Columbia Academy (Spangle, Washington) and Walla Walla College (College Place, Washington) were the chosen institutions for his education. While at Walla Walla College, he became the first student missionary to serve outside of North America. In 1966, just prior to beginning his first year in medical school, he married Judy Osborne. Three daughters--Chandra, Briana, and Kari--have blessed the family. In 1970, he participated in two commencements at Loma Linda University, receiving his medical degree from the School of Medicine and a master of public health degree from the School of Public Health. Following a one-year internal medicine internship at LLUMC, he began studies toward his doctor of public health degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. From 1972 to 1976, Dr. Hart served abroad in Tanzania, in East Africa. His first two years were in Moshi at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) where, as a population intern from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, he developed the department of community health. During this time, he co-authored Child Health, an innovative book in simple English for mid-level health professionals in Africa. Third-world countries continue to use this book. In 1974, a USAID contract to LLU took him to Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania, where he was chief of party to the Ministry of Health. Dr. Hart was instrumental in developing a maternal and child health (MCH) program for Tanzania. This work included development of a new cadre of health-care workers called MCH aides. Curriculum development and training of teachers facilitated the development of 18 schools to train MCH aides. In 1977, Dr. Hart received his doctor of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University and became board certified in preventive medicine. Dr. Hart has served Loma Linda University since 1972, including serving as chair of the department of health sciences, director of the Center for Health Promotion, chair of the School of Medicine department of preventive medicine and, since 1990, dean of the School of Public Health. Dr. Hart's vision extends beyond the walls of Loma Linda University not only to the local communities, but to the villages and towns, the hospitals and mission clinics in the farthest reaches of our globe. His early involvement in student missionary work was key in the development of Students for International Mission Service (SIMS) and Social Action Community (SAC) Health System--a local low-cost health-care system for the medically underserved. He is also president of Adventist Health International, a new organization created to manage health services in developing countries. |
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