Education

Salem College, One Of The Nation’s Oldest Women’s Colleges, Casts New Focus On Health Leadership.


Salem College, one of the oldest women’s colleges in the nation, has hired one of the nation’s youngest presidents to lead its transformation to an institution focused on health leadership.

Salem Academy and College traces its history to 1772 when Moravian missionaries founded a school for young girls in Salem, North Carolina. Today, the Academy and College share a campus at the school’s original location in the city of Winston-Salem. It claims to be the nation’s 13th oldest college by founding date and its “oldest educational institution for women and girls.” This year it will celebrate its 250th anniversary.

The institution has evolved into two main structures, under the overall direction of a single Board of Trustees and president. Salem Academy is a college preparatory day and boarding school for girls in grades 9 through 12. It enrolled 62 students this year. Salem College is a private liberal arts school for women, with a total enrollment of about 600 students.

While the traditional undergraduate program at Salem is for women only, both women and men ages 23 and older are accepted for undergraduate programs through the Fleer Center for Adult Education and for master’s programs in education and music.

Salem Academy and College’s annual budget is about $20 million a year, and its endowment is valued at $67.2 million.

A New President

This summer Salem hired Summer Johnson McGee to be its 22nd president. Dr. McGee, who at 40 is one of the nation’s youngest college presidents, earned her PhD in Bioethics & Health Policy from The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health after receiving a BA in Bioethics from Indiana.

She brings a strong record of leadership in healthcare education to her new post, having most recently served as the founding dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven. Prior to that, Dr. McGee was on the faculties at Loyola University Chicago, the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and Albany Medical College. A decorated teacher, she has also published widely on various issues in healthcare and biomedical science, including the importance of education in solving public health problems.

At the University of New Haven, Dr. McGee oversaw the creation of more than a dozen new in-person and online undergraduate and graduate level academic programs, including one of the only professional doctoral programs in health sciences in the nation.

A Focus on Health Leadership

Her hiring marks a new direction for Salem College which, earlier this year, announced that it was beginning a Health Leadership focus to prepare the next generation of women leaders in various healthcare fields.

According to the college’s website, Salem is focusing its mission on “becoming the nation’s only liberal arts college dedicated to elevating and expanding the role of women in Health Leadership. This new Health Leadership approach to liberal arts education will prepare the next generation of women to become empowered, ethical, effective health leaders in a wide range of fields from medicine and wellness to law and public policy, from business and not-for-profit to advocacy and the environment.”

In a recent interview, President McGee told me the transformation, which can be traced to a strategic plan that was developed in 2018, is already well underway. Starting this fall, Salem will add four new health-oriented majors—Health SciencesHealth HumanitiesHealth Advocacy and Humanitarian Systems, and Health Communication and Data Visualization—as well as developing special programming in leadership, a renewed core liberal arts curriculum, and expanded internship and service-learning opportunities.

Dr. McGee challenged the faculty to revise at least 50% of current course offerings in support of the new curriculum, and so far they have responded by revamping or adding 64 courses. While the college will retain its liberal arts grounding, it will also inject the new health emphasis throughout the curriculum, as it aims to prepare graduates for fields like digital health, telemedicine, and healthcare compliance that its new president believes have excellent career prospects for women.

The new focus is being partially underwritten with a $5 million gift from an anonymous donor. With those funds, Salem is planning to add five faculty in the next year along with five additional staff. Over the next five years, Dr. McGee envisions the possibility of adding 20-25 more faculty and staff with the expertise necessary to complete the transformation. At the same time, the viability of several current majors is being evaluated, with the understanding that they may be paused or ultimately even discontinued.

President McGee views the new health leadership emphasis as a wise direction for Salem to take, given that 43% of its undergraduates were already majoring in STEM or health-related fields prior to the mission reset.

“Colleges cannot be everything to everyone in today’s competitive market place. We have identified our niche based on our students’ interests, evolving workforce needs, and Salem’s history of preparing women to lead and engage in the challenges of their time,” she told me. “We aspire to equip women with the competencies needed to succeed in the dynamic world of health and healthcare and to reduce the critical health leadership gender gap.”



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.