New provost continues to break glass ceiling

When Lisa Saladin and her husband Mike Saladin accepted faculty positions at MUSC in 1990, their intention was to stay for one year, then return home to Canada. But life had considerably different plans for the couple. They quickly fell in love with MUSC, Charleston and the people, and 27 years later, not only are they still here, she was recently named to the No.2 university position - executive vice president for academic affairs and provost.  And while it’s not the trajectory she as a young physical therapist ever could have envisioned, being tapped for myriad leadership positions happened organically, as mentors along her professional path recognized her potential, passion and skills.

Saladin rose through the ranks at the College of Health Professions. From the time she accepted that position as a visiting instructor in the physical therapy program, she blazed a bold trail that led her to the deanship, a position she held for five years. In that time, she returned the favor, mentoring many faculty members and both promoting from within and recruiting strong educators and researchers, taking the college to a place of robust national prominence. 

Saladin’s love for her college was unmistakable, and her reputation as a strong leader, negotiator, mentor and intraprofessional collaborator did not go unnoticed.

When former provost Mark Sothmann, Ph.D., stepped down in June 2016, Saladin was quickly appointed interim. After a national search, she was named provost in mid-April.

Once the MUSC Board of Trustees confirmed her appointment, President David Cole, M.D., FACS, was elated to share the news with the MUSC community.

“Dr. Saladin will serve as the chief academic officer for MUSC. After engagement with a talented pool of candidates from notable institutions across the country, Lisa emerged as the top candidate to assume the provost’s responsibilities. She possesses a clear  understanding of the complexity of her new role since she has served as the MUSC interim provost since July 2016. She will be the second female provost in MUSC history.”

As Saladin says grace over the bounty that’s been placed in front of her, she realizes it has been an interesting journey to Colcock Hall. Leadership suits her, but it was something she hadn’t sought - never was the deanship of CHP on her radar, let alone provost.

She shakes her head and laughs when she says she had to go back and apologize to the faculty of CHP. “I swore in blood I would not go for provost.” Fortunately, though, everyone has been incredibly supportive, knowing she’s the best person for the job.

What might look to others look like chess moves, she characterizes more as opportunities pursued. Previously, she said, every other role - from clinical physical therapist to chairwoman of Health Professions - all came to fruition because she was expanding her personal skill set or meeting a need. But as she embraced each new role, she thought, “I really enjoy this, too,” which served as a springboard to a cornucopia of new possibilities.

“Every new opportunity has literally been an opportunity I walked into. It’s interesting. You learn a different perspective or a new role. You are exposed to things. You learn that you like them. Then you learn to do them well. And people ask you to do more of them.”

It didn’t take long for opportunity to begin to knock - and her to answer. But opening the door came with strings.

“A new opportunity has to resonate - there has to be a spark there that answers the question, ‘Why would I want to expose myself to this new role?’ There has to be something intriguing, growth potential, something that stimulates me to say, ‘I’m just not doing this because.’ It has to have a purpose.”

She knew early on she wanted to connect with people and explored various areas of medicine that she knew would give her purpose. The thought of building long-term relationships with patients excited her, and she arrived at physical therapy. She became a neuro-therapist and worked with some of the most challenging cases. There she could celebrate even the smallest accomplishments. Her rewards were many.

“For me, physical therapy is about sharing my patients’ accomplishments. My primary patients had neurological conditions - Parkinson’s, stroke, brain injuries - they’d lost something, and they needed help. As you help them achieve their goals, there’s an enormous satisfaction. You cry with them when they take their first steps. You work with their families. You get to know them. You know their goals. It was incredibly gratifying to see them achieve those goals.”

She found that same level of satisfaction teaching physical therapy students, which she continued to do even while she was dean of the college.

“Carry forward that sense of helping someone accomplish their goals to students - it’s the same thing. My satisfaction was seeing them grow. I taught neuroscience - a really tough course. The students who struggled, I would spend a lot of time with, to help them see how to learn better. And they’d get it and go from a failing grade to doing well in my course. It’s the same sense of satisfaction - seeing someone accomplish their goals.”

And as provost? Will she still experience that same sense of satisfaction? She says yes. She still gets to connect with people every day - the reason she went into health care in the first place.

“In this job, it’s a broadening scope. I still get to connect with people, and I get to go deeper into certain areas and understand how we connect. How do I support them? For me, it’s understanding how my role can facilitate their work and how I can get the resources necessary for the people who now report to me and rely on me to do their work.  It’s challenging. It’s problem-solving every day.”

That’s what she loves about the job: problem solving. And with a formidable lineup of senior leaders reporting to her, among them the vice president for research, associate provost, deans of the six colleges and directors of Hollings Cancer Center, South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC) and Library Services, she will likely get her wish.

“I love to meet with people, hear them, and help them figure out how to solve their problems. It’s sort of like physical therapy. You listen to what they want to do. You listen to their goals. I don’t do their work. I facilitate them. The role of the provost - it’s strategic, and yes, it’s providing some direction, but it’s also in large part, identifying where people or units or colleges or departments want to go and facilitating their progress. It’s working with them as their partner to get them where they want to go.”

Changes ahead

As provost, Saladin will be responsible for institutional vision setting, strategic planning and oversight and investment for education and biomedical research.

No small undertaking. Especially considering she assumed the position at a particularly challenging time in education, research and health care. Right off the bat she’s responsible for recruiting the right people to fill a handful of senior positions.

She would not have accepted the position, she said, if she didn’t believe she could make a substantive impact. And as she scans the horizon in front of her, she approaches the new position cautiously, yet optimistically. 

These are challenging times - and there are challenging times ahead. This is not going to be easy. Health care reform is changing. The finance of health care is changing. The finance of education and state level of funding for public education have changed dramatically. We have fiscal challenges,” she said. “We have building challenges. We have resource challenges. We are looking at some pretty critical hires. Without the right leaders in place, we’re not going to be as successful in managing the change ahead. We’ve got to create the right team and empower them.”

And, MUSC, she said, has to constantly be asking what’s new in education.

“We can’t continue to do the same old things. It’s a competitive market. We’re competing for students. We’re competing for faculty.”

She said part of the struggle is education has to become more of a business. And that’s the hard part - balancing the business side and the people side.

“We need to come up with creative ways of generating revenue. Our expenses are going to continue to increase. We don’t want to be status quo and not be able to pay our staff well. In order to do that, we have to think of creative ways - new ways to generate revenue, and we have to create mechanisms to be more efficient in how we spend money. So efficiencies, cost efficiencies, we have to be exploring that,” she said, her face reflecting the weight on her shoulders. “Not to do that would be to face the future unprepared.”

Saladin is central to these conversations. She enjoys thinking outside the box and exploring creative ideas. For instance, in addition to the new MUSC-Clemson partnership that was recently announced, innovative models such as a possible three-year medical school curriculum are being discussed. While it wouldn’t increase revenues, it would decrease student debt - a reality that plagues families and has recently drawn considerable news coverage and political sound bites.

“Not always do our ideas jibe on the balance sheet,” she explained. “We’re talking about generating revenues and reducing expenditures; a three-year medical school is probably going to reduce our revenues, but in the end, it’s better for the students, because we can’t keep crippling students with the massive amount of student debt,” she said pragmatically.

So the team brainstorms opportunities that might include more distance education or innovative programs like a partnership between oral health and engineering students.

Recently, Saladin had her first retreat and brought in all the deans. She also invited MUSC Health CEO Patrick Cawley, M.D.

“We asked Pat what the health care workforce needs in the hospital are and what positions he might need in the future. We discussed what we can do to help him provide that. Whether it’s certificate programs or new degree programs - all of it will help generate new revenues. Again, it must be modeled carefully, because we can’t just create a new program without understanding the expenditures that it’s going to create or stress to the infrastructure.”

It’s that type of big picture thinking that she enjoys. But she understands leadership comes with its share of stress.

“OK, here’s a new program - what are all the dominoes? Is it collaborative? Interprofessional? Where are we going to invest that will have the maximum gain and least amount of expenditures?  When we find solutions - it doesn’t get any better. But the flip side is when there are challenges, and we can’t find solutions; people’s lives are affected. Those are the most difficult decisions that leaders have to face. That keeps me up at night.”

Worst-case scenarios notwithstanding, she can’t emphasize enough how dedicated the leadership team is.

“I love this leadership team. We function like a well-oiled machine. We respect each other. We can push at each other. I can be completely authentic, have an opposite opinion, and be heard. We might not always agree, but we listen to each other. That is a key reason why I accepted this position. The senior team works really well together.” 

She believes everyone on the senior team has the best interest of MUSC at heart and wants the institution to grow and thrive. After nearly a year in the job as interim, she’s already experienced the realities of the job.

“I work extremely well with Dave Cole, and I’m excited about the conversations I’m having with Pat Cawley. We are sharing what the clinical side is doing and what the academic side is doing and discussing how we integrate more. How we synergize more. I love what Dave is saying - and it’s not just words - about integration and synergies and collaboration and getting out of silos. That, to me, that’s exciting. There’s been too much ‘I’m in it for myself or for this unit.’ This unit will survive. We recognize we will survive, grow and thrive if we do it together. For this leadership team, it’s about the success of the entire enterprise.”

Personal investment

It is said that every day offers a new opportunity to give richly of one’s time, talents and treasures, and Saladin embodies that philosophy. Not only has she devoted her career to MUSC, but, in many ways, her life. To her, MUSC is far more than a career she has spent nearly three decades building - it is a family she has invested in, teaching students, mentoring faculty, treating patients, nurturing friendships, giving back.

She and Mike, a professor in the Department of Health Science and Research, have been very generous donors, establishing a scholarship that provides two awards per year: one to a Ph.D. student and the other to a physical therapy student. The Saladins, both Ph.D.s, named the fund, as well as the student life center in the College of Health Professions, not for themselves but in honor of their beloved 12th grade English teacher, Salvatore Scaletta.

They’ve also made planned gifts that will establish the scholarship as a permanent endowment. They’ve put careful thought into how to advance science and care at MUSC.

That commitment comes from more than just a devotion to the institution. “MUSC is truly my family. I cut my professional teeth here. This was my first full-time faculty position. The people at the college are my family. We donated money to this university because it has given so much to us. This is my family. So for me, everything I do connects back to making this a great place.”

Her door is always open, and the wall of her office in the president’s suite is adorned with personal photos of time spent doing what she loves - hiking and backpacking are among her and Mike’s favorite pastimes. The focal point is a breathtaking photo of Patagonia’s jagged peaks and magnificent glaciers rising dramatically above Chile and Argentina. She snapped it while they were on a hike.

The photo reflects an ascent fraught with risks and challenges as well as victory and fulfillment - experiences that prepare a person for uncharted territory that lies ahead.