Executive Veterinary Leadership Program: Making an Impact as Public Health Leaders

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Dates Location Tuition
Jun 7, 2009 - Jun 12, 2009 Philadelphia $8,000

Beyond Veterinary Practice

A joint program for veterinarians from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and Wharton Executive Education.
 

Veterinarians play a critical yet often misunderstood and underappreciated role in today's global health arena. As issues such as avian flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) continue to be key concerns for public health officials worldwide, both the need and the opportunities for veterinarians to become part of the international debate have grown. While veterinary medicine continues to deal with relevant issues such as infectious zoonotic disease, many veterinarians themselves have not yet had the opportunity to influence public discourse beyond the practice.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine has developed a leadership program in partnership with the Wharton School to prepare veterinarians for making a greater contribution as leaders in the public health arena and related organizations.

The Executive Veterinary Leadership Program is the first of its kind, combining the knowledge and experience of a veterinary school with that of a business school to take a global view of the leadership roles veterinarians should be holding in the public health arena, not just in their own profession. Program emphasis is on training veterinary thought leaders to become business and public health leaders, and the partnership between these two schools will facilitate this transformation.

"Veterinarians want to be — and need to be — partners for disease control and other major global health, biosecurity, and food supply issues; this program is about helping them get a seat at the table," says Dr. Joan C. Hendricks, The Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

This leadership development program gives veterinarians a comprehensive blueprint for making an impact as public health leaders — beginning with a broad overview of the profession and culminating with a personalized action plan for continued post-program development.


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The format of the program will allow you to learn, understand, and apply a variety of tools to hone and refine your leadership development. The program blends the state of veterinary business today with business skill-set development — a leadership experience completely customized for you and the challenges you face in the current environment.

Session Topics

  • The Challenge of Critical Thinking and Peripheral Vision
  • The Art of Woo: Strategic Influence and Persuasion
  • The Current State of Veterinary Medicine from a Business Context
  • Working Across Boundaries
  • Rebranding the Veterinary Profession
  • Leading Teams
  • Challenges and Opportunities for Veterinary Medicine
  • Veterinary Public Health
  • Panel Discussion: The Future of Animal Health
  • Group and Individual Action Plans for Post-Program Development

This program is targeted at current or aspiring veterinarian executives or leaders. The goal is to have participants with breadth and depth across the profession and across industries and with a global reach, come together to hone and refine their individual leadership skills as well as think about how they can be the change agents in the profession today.

The following are examples of the types of positions held by candidates who are expected to apply; however, the list is in no way exhaustive:

  • Veterinarians in the pharmaceutical industry
  • Faculty
  • Government (FDA, CDC, USDA, state, county)
  • International (OIE, World Bank, UN)
  • Retail
  • Directors of associations
  • VMAs and AVMA (state associations)
  • Veterinary Management Groups (VMGs)
  • Large practice owners (>10 practitioners)
  • Veterinary business consultants/advisors
  • Animal Hospital Association

Participants must be fluent in English. Specifically, they should be comfortable with metaphoric speech. If this presents a problem, the University of Pennsylvania offers one- and two-week intensive English Language Programs (ELPs) to prepare you for a productive week at Wharton.

Faculty use a mix of learning methodologies — team sessions, role play, interactive lectures, experiential learning, and cases. The week-long program culminates in the development of action plans for both individuals and their small groups related to an implementation plan for their change initiatives. The individual action plans will include very specific, feasible, actionable steps to which the participants commit during a self-designated timeframe.

The participants will also be asked to consider metrics to determine progress on the commitments — thus encouraging accountability. The group action plans will be developed by the small groups and will also include specific, actionable steps that the members are willing to perform during a specified time period. These group action plans will be designed to further the visibility and impact of the veterinary profession. Enrollment is limited to allow for an environment conducive to interaction.

undefined KATHY PEARSON, PhD
Academic Director
Adjunct Associate Professor, Operations and Information Management Department
The Wharton School

Kathy Pearson, PhD serves as an adjunct associate professor in the Operations and Information Management Department at the Wharton School. She has taught operations management courses in the MBA program and Executive Master’s of Technology Management program as well as probability and statistics, simulation modeling, and other courses for the department and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, Dr. Pearson was honored with the "Goes Above and Beyond the Call of Duty" award by the 2007 Wharton MBA class. In addition, Dr. Pearson is a senior consultant and director, Executive Education, for Decision Strategies International (DSI), a management consulting firm focused on scenario-based strategic planning and decision making.

Dr. Pearson is heavily involved in Executive Education at the Wharton School and DSI, teaching on a variety of topics such as Critical Thinking, Scenario Planning, Strategic Decision Making, Project Management, and Stakeholder Analysis. As academic director for many programs, she is responsible for the design of the academic curriculum, the integration of the material, and the overall educational quality of the program. Specifically, Dr. Pearson has served as the academic director for the Wharton Executive Management Program for Academic Surgery Leaders, the Patient Safety Leadership Academy Executive Program, the Wharton Nursing Leaders Program, and the GlaxoSmithKline Executive Management Program for Pharmacy Leaders. Many of her participants are clinician executives, but she has also worked with executives from a wide variety of industries and has taught at CEDEP at INSEAD in Fountainebleau, France.

Dr. Pearson's industrial experience includes analytical support for the pharmaceutical industry, various hospital groups, the Department of Defense, and several manufacturing companies. Most recently, she has served on a number of quality management and best practice teams for a major health care company, has been heavily involved in developing computer simulation models for the health care industry, and has worked with several professional organizations in developing long-term strategic business plans. In addition, she has worked with hospital clinicians in the area of patient safety.

Dr. Pearson received her BS degree in Theoretical Mathematics from Auburn University, her MS degree in Decision Sciences from Georgia State University, and her PhD in Industrial Engineering (concentration in Statistics) from Northwestern University.
undefined DAVID N. BERG, PhD
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Yale School of Medicine

David N. Berg is Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine. His special interests are group and intergroup relations. From 1977 to 1992, he was a professor at the Yale School of Organization and Management (SOM), where he taught courses in organizational behavior, group dynamics, and organizational diagnosis. In 1990, he received the SOM Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching.

In 1992, Dr. Berg opened a private practice in organizational psychology, continuing his work as a consultant and as a teacher in executive programs. He has consulted for a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, municipalities, not-for-profit foundations, and public school systems. He has written several articles and books. In addition, he was deputy editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science from 1994 through 2004, and formerly served on the editorial boards of both the Journal of Management Inquiry and the Journal of Management Education.

Dr. Berg received his BA in Psychology and MA in Administrative Sciences from Yale University, as well as both an MA and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan.
Katherine J. Klein, PhD KATHERINE J. KLEIN, PhD
Edward H. Bowman Professor; Professor of Management
The Wharton School

Katherine Klein is well-known for her award-winning multilevel research in organizations. In rigorous and creative studies, she examines how individual, team, and organizational characteristics combine to shape individual, team, and organizational performance and effectiveness.

She is the author of "How Do They Get There? An Examination of the Antecedents of Centrality in Team Networks" (Academy of Management Journal), which examines who gains positions of influence, friendship, or dislike in a team's social network, and why. Her recent study of team leadership in emergency trauma care center exposes leaders’ use of "dynamic delegation" to simultaneously ensure high-quality patient care and the development of the team's novice members. She is also the author of studies of diversity in organizations, technological change, and employee stock ownership.

Prior to coming to Wharton, Dr. Klein was on the faculty of the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland (Industrial and Organizational Psychology Program). She was also a visiting professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. She earned her BA from Yale University and her PhD from the University of Texas.

Dr. Klein is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology and has served on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Leadership Quarterly, among others. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Institute, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private foundations, and corporations. Dr. Klein is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association.
Charlotte A. Lacroix, DVM, JD CHARLOTTE A. LACROIX, DVM, JD
Veterinary Attorney and CEO, Veterinary Business Advisors, Inc.

Dr. Charlotte Lacroix owns and manages Veterinary Business Advisors, Inc., a legal and business consulting firm, and advises veterinarians and attorneys nation-wide on business and legal issues. Dr. Lacroix received her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 1988 from the University of California at Davis. After completing a large animal internship at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada), she worked for several years at an equine medical and surgical referral practice serving northern New Jersey's large equine community. In pursuit of her goal to make greater contributions to the veterinary profession, Dr. Lacroix attended law school and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Dr. Lacroix's legal and consulting activities include: legal document preparation and negotiation; assisting practice owners in selecting and forming business entities; advising on all aspects of veterinary partnerships, including associate buy-ins, specialty and general practice governance and management, and partner retirement and withdrawals; negotiating and facilitating the purchase and sale of practices of all types; consulting on specialty practice "shared leases" and other commercial leases; assisting with all employment law issues; and advising on malpractice cases, animal law and other legal and business problems. Dr. Lacroix lectures extensively on all these topics nation-wide and overseas, and is a frequent speaker at AVMA, AAHA, NAVC, WVC, and other veterinary association and industry meetings and seminars. She is also an enthusiastic adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Lacroix is a regular contributor to JAVMA, Veterinary Economics, DVM Magazine, Veterinary Forum, Partners in Practice, and AAHA publications. She has written numerous other articles, contributed to several books, and appeared on radio and television. Dr. Lacroix also volunteers her time and expertise to veterinary and other organizations, including AVMA, AAHA, AAEP, NJAEP, NJVMA, PVMA, and NAVC.
Mario Moussa, PhD MARIO MOUSSA, PhD
Principal, CFAR (Center for Applied Research), Inc.
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Care Economics
University of Pennsylvania

Co-author of The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, Mario Moussa directs and teaches programs for hospital leaders and physicians, corporate security managers, and energy and banking executives. He teaches negotiation, influence, strategy, change, and corporate culture and is co-director of Wharton's Essentials of Management program. He is also a principal at CFAR, Inc., a management consulting firm that began as a Wharton research center. A specialist in large-scale organizational change initiatives, he has consulted to many of the world's leading corporations, universities, and foundations, including United Health Group, PNC Bank, the Georgetown University Medical Center, and State Farm Insurance. He has published widely in the field of organizational dynamics, power, and influence.
undefined PATRICIA WILLIAMS, PhD
Associate Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School

Patti Williams is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School. She currently teaches courses on advertising/marketing communications to both undergraduates and MBA students at Wharton, and has also taught on marketing and the Internet. She is the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award.

Her research interests include the role of emotions in persuasion and consumer decision making and automatic and effortful processes in consumer behavior. Her papers have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research, among others. She serves on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Prior to joining the Wharton School in 2000, Dr. Williams was an assistant professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU. She received a BA in communications from Stanford University and an MBA and PhD in marketing from UCLA.