Anthropologist as university strategic planner envisioning a new medical school with a focus on community-based care

Abstract

What kind of background prepares an anthropologist for a leading role in planning the future of an entire university with a vision for a new medical school to train physicians focused on community care? This chapter presents a reflexive, autoethnographic, and life history approach of the training, research, applied, and practicing experiences that provided a foundation for a medical anthropologist to be a university strategic planner when critical decisions were made for a future medical school at Florida International University (FIU). Graduate training in medical anthropology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, and then employment in the University of Miami School of Medicine as a "cultural broker" in a community clinic, provided the experience necessary to envision and speak with authority for a new medical school with a community focus. Reflecting on factors shaping anthropology and medicine over the past 50 years, this story highlights an anthropologist purposefully directing organizational culture change. The lessons learned are important for future students assessing applied, practicing and academic careers in medical anthropology, for those developing curriculum in anthropology departments or medical schools, and for medical school administrators and faculty needing to better understand the skills and perspectives anthropologists bring to medical education. Key words: Strategic planning, Community-based, New Medical School, Organizational culture, Applied anthropology, Practicing anthropology, Careers.