My First Day at Geisel

Hi everyone,

It is hard to believe that today is my first official day in the office, serving as Geisel’s new dean.

Before looking forward and thinking about the future, let me spend a moment expressing my heartfelt thanks to Interim Dean Leach for his devotion to Geisel, his strength of leadership, and for the friendship he has already extended to me and my family. I’d also like to thank the Provost, President, and their staff, the entire Dean’s office team, the senior associate deans and their teams – you all have contributed to making it seamless for me to step right into this job.

Even though today is my official first workday, I’ve already been enjoying becoming a Geisel team member. I was able to participate in welcoming our incoming medical students and MPH students, I have met some of our most committed supporters and alumni, I walked in my first Prouty, and I’ve started to meet some our faculty, staff, students, and community members.

If these orientation events are any indication, I’ve definitely landed somewhere very special. What a warm and enthusiastic welcome I have had, and I am thrilled to be working alongside all of you. As you can probably guess, I already feel like a welcome member of this school of medicine community and could immediately feel why people love this place.

I'll admit, first days are always a mix of experiences and emotions:  a big dollop of excitement for hitting the ground running, a little dash of struggling (trying to remember everyone's name), and a sprinkling of moments being totally and completely lost…even on my way to try to find the coffee machine! But I wouldn't trade this first day for anything, since it is the first day of the best job I’ll ever have.

Over the coming weeks and months, I'm looking forward to getting out and meeting you – our devoted faculty, talented staff, exceptional students, and our fierce advocates and supporters in the community. Whether it's in a hallway, attending a meeting, enjoying an event, or grabbing coffee (once I find the coffee machine), I intend to make sure that our paths cross soon.

Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm genuinely excited for what's ahead, together.

With gratitude and anticipation,

Jennifer