Academic Advisory Council
The Academic Advisory Council is problem oriented, utilizing the deep and broad experiential insights of three nationally recognized leaders in academic medicine. Rather than using an approach to consulting that applies formulas and group think,
Academic Advisory Council (AAC) applies a personalized approach to provide advice to individual or institutional challenges.
Personalized Approach to Academic Leaders and Medical Center
The AAC has, as its primary and highest goal the future success of academic medicine in the U.S. Fundamental to this success is the meaningful and sustained leadership by medical school deans and other academic leaders. Academic Advisory Council is committed to bringing the expertise, knowledge, wisdom and experience of three leaders of academic medicine – each of whom has served for more than a decade at leading U.S. medical schools and Academic Medical Centers but who are no longer in institutional leadership roles. The primary motivation of the AAC is to make its individual and collective expertise accessible to medical schools, universities and teaching hospital leaders.
Areas of Expertise:
- Executive and Leadership Recruitment
- Organization and governance of Academic Medical Centers (AMC)
- Leadership assessment and performance as well as leadership skill building
- Understanding of the critical and essential interactions and intersections of the clinical and academic missions of teaching hospitals, including links to community physicians, centers and hospitals
Meet the Academic Advisory Council Leaders:
Arthur Rubenstein: Arthur is currently Professor in the Department of Medicine, and Division of Endocrinology at the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Dr. Rubenstein was the Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine from September 2001 to July 2011. Together, these entities make up Penn Medicine, a $3.6 billion enterprise, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care.
Before joining Penn, Arthur served for four years as Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Gustave L. Levy Distinguished Professor. Earlier, he was the Lowell T. Coggeshall Distinguished Service Professor of Medical Sciences and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Rubenstein is an internationally recognized endocrinologist recognized for clinical expertise and groundbreaking research in diabetes. Well-known for his inspired teaching, Arthur has served in numerous professional leadership positions during his career. Author of more than 350 publications, Dr. Rubenstein is the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the highest honor of the Association of American Physicians (AAP), the George M. Kober Medal and the highest honor from the Association of Professors of Medicine, the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Chair of Medicine Award and the prestigious Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Tom Lawley: Tom is currently the William Patterson Timmie Professor of Dermatology in the Department of Dermatology at Emory University School of Medicine. He served as Dean of Emory University School of Medicine for 16 years (1996-2013). During his tenure the School of Medicine’s research enterprise increased five-fold, more than one million square feet of clinical, research, and teaching space was built, the size of the faculty doubled and a new innovative curriculum was created.
Prior to his years as Dean, Tom served as a department chair at Emory for 8 years and as a scientist at NIH for 13 years. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in autoimmune skin diseases. At a national level, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and as Chairman of the Board of the AAMC. He served as a member, and then as Chair, of the Council of Deans of the AAMC. In addition, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education as well as Chairman of the Board. He also headed the AAMC/Veteran’s Affairs Dean’s Liaison Committee for more than 10 years. He has received many awards and honors, including the Distinguished Service Award from the AAMC, and he is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.
Phil Pizzo: Phil is currently the David and Susan Heckerman Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford. From April 2001 to December 1, 2012 he was Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, where he was also the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Professor. Pizzo has devoted much of his distinguished medical career to the diagnosis, management, prevention and treatment of childhood cancers and the infectious complications that occur in children whose immune systems are compromised by cancer and AIDS. He has also been a leader in academic medicine, championing programs and policies to improve the future of science, education and healthcare in the U.S. and beyond.
Phil has served as chief of pediatrics in the National Cancer Institute’s infectious disease section, and acting scientific director in the Division of Clinical Sciences. He was the physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital in Boston and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, as well as the Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics. He is the author of more than 500 scientific articles and 16 books and monographs. Phil has received many awards and honors and was the 2012 recipient of the John Howland Award, the highest honor for lifetime achievement bestowed by the American Pediatric Society. Phil is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and was also elected to the IOM Council. He was elected to the Board of Directors for the American Association of Clinical Oncology and the Infectious Disease Society of America. He served on the Board of the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Foundation for the NIH, the California Healthcare Institute, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He has served as Board Chair of the Association of Academic Health Centers and as Chair of the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2009 he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the University of Rochester and Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey.
To learn more about the services offered by the Executive Academic Medicine Advisory Council, contact us at 800-876-0500 or via email at
academics@merritthawkins.com.