Chapter 10: Becoming the First Woman Chair of a Clinical Department

Here Dr. Bruner talks about the process that ended in her becoming the first woman chair of a clinical department (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) at MD Anderson. She began to build her administrative skills by attending courses in leadership. She applied for the position of Division Head when the Divisions of Laboratory Medicine and the Division of Pathology were combined. (Dr. Bruner talks about the administrative reasoning behind this move.) Given her qualifications she feels she was passed over because the selection committee couldn\u27t quite envision a woman division head. She notes that the Department of Pathology was in limbo while the search for the new division head and chair was in progress. She lists the qualities of MD Anderson that convinced her to stay at the institution: term tenure, the all-funds budget, the interdisciplinary integration of specialties, and the physicians who love what they are doing. When the new Division head came in, he chose her for the Chair of Pathology in 1998.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1517/thumbnail.jp