The program is dedicated to preparing women for senior leadership roles in academic medicine

Susan Lane, MD, MACP, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Professor of Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University, has been named to the 2025-26 Class of Fellows for the Hedwig van Amerigen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program. An initiative at Drexel University College of Medicine, the program is dedicated to preparing women for senior leadership roles in schools of medicine, dentistry, public health and pharmacy.

According to Drexel, the ELAM program is specially developed for senior women faculty at the associate or full professorship level who demonstrate the greatest potential for assuming executive leadership positions at academic health centers within the next five years. To be accepted into the program, each fellow much be nominated and supported by the dean or another senior official at their institution. Dr. Lane received multiple senior level nominations and support.

ELAM centers on developing both the professional and personal skills for women to lead and manage in a complex healthcare environment, with a particular focus on the unique challenges of women in leadership positions.

“I am honored to be selected to this 2025-26 Class of ELAM Fellows, and during my career at Stony Brook Medicine I have endeavored to support women in their individual academic journeys and pave the way for them to serve in educational leadership positions,” says Dr. Lane, also Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical Faculty Development for the RSOM.

Work for the incoming class of ELAM fellows begins in June 2025 with online assignments and community-building activities. Each fellow will be expected to develop an Institutional Action Project. A symposium in 2026 will feature the various projects completed from around the nation.

A resident of East Setauket, Dr. Lane, a RSOM faculty member since 2000, says she hopes to create a longitudinal development program for junior faculty at Stony Brook Medicine during their pivotal transition from the role of trainee to faculty member, with the goal to help them thrive as they juggle professional and personal responsibilities.

The effectiveness of ELAM’s distinctive approach to leadership preparation is broadly recognized within the academic health community. ELAM alumnae number more than 1,600 and serve in leadership positions at some 300 academic health centers worldwide.

Tara Huston, MD, Professor of Surgery and Dermatology in the RSOM’s Department of Surgery, is a current ELAM fellow.

For more about the ELAM and its curriculum, see this link.