From the Dean: UND Looks to the Future

Effective organizations and institutions periodically evaluate what they’ve accomplished in the past, how they are positioned at present, and what they foresee as their possible role and impact in the future. UND recently completed its visioning effort with the release of a new strategic plan UND LEADS. By focusing on five strategic pillars – learning, equity, affinity, discovery, and service – UND has looked into the future and formulated a path forward. The UND SMHS now is internalizing the UND LEADS structure into our operational plans and we are establishing quantitative metrics wherever possible to assess how well we will be accomplishing the various goals associated with the UND SMHS version of UND LEADS.

North Dakota’s higher education system engages in an analogous process. Called Envision, the current system plan looks forward is through 2030. Recently the State Board of Higher Education (SBHE) and the North Dakota University System (NDUS) decided to carry the process forward through 2035 with their Envision 2035 initiative that is starting now and will be completed by the spring. The effort “aims to anticipate the programmatic needs that will challenge future students as they ready themselves to enter the workforce. Nine priorities have been identified for study. Four pertain directly to Programs of the Future: Agriculture, Energy, Digital Sciences, and Healthcare. The remaining five groups pertain to the Student of the Future, Teacher of the Future, Infrastructure of the Future, Human Capital of the Future, and Values of the Future.”

I have been asked to help lead the Healthcare study along with SBHE Member Dr. Casey Ryan and North Dakota State University Department of Public Health Chair Dr. Pamela Jo Johnson. Pamela Jo and I already have met by Zoom to get the process rolling, and currently we are considering the names of other potential members for our study group. We also are soliciting ideas for the group to consider as we try to envision the needs, priorities, and challenges for healthcare education over the next 10-12 years.

We would very much appreciate any suggestions or feedback you have as we try to envision the future. If you have candidates in mind who might be helpful as we discuss this topic or wish to suggest topics for consideration, we’d be most appreciative. Please send any thoughts or comments to dean@med.und.edu and I’ll share them with Drs. Ryan and Johnson.

I’ll be sharing more thoughts and reflections on this initiative as we work through the process over the next several months. Our first presentation to the entire SBHE and NDUS leadership will be in early November, so we certainly have our work cut out for us!

Joshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPH
Vice President for Health Affairs, UND
Dean, UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences