Retirement reception for Dr. Robert Olson @SMHS Southeast Campus on June 24
After 37 years of working in North Dakota, Dr. Robert Olson, director of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) Psychiatry Residency Training Program, is retiring!
To honor Olson, a reception will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, at the SMHS Southeast Campus in Fargo (4820 23rd Ave. South, Suite 200). Refreshments will be served.
Growing up in Williston, N.D., Olson developed an appreciation for hard work, taking on various jobs in his youth, including one on a cattle ranch. He attended Jamestown College, and, developing an interest in medicine like this father (who was the first radiologist in North Dakota), thought he might pursue family medicine or orthopedic surgery. However, he got a job as a psychiatric tech at the North Dakota State Hospital, and the rest is history.
“Rob” as he is known to friends, attended medical school at UND and then psychiatry residency in Portland, Ore., where he first experienced integrated care, as well as community mental health and rural outreach programing. He became board certified in both adult and geriatric psychiatry and returned to practice in North Dakota, where, not unlike his trailblazing father, became the first board certified geriatric psychiatrist in the state.
For many years Olson practiced at Fargo Clinic, which became MeritCare and is now Sanford Health. He was a community faculty member of UND SMHS for many years, and became the Psychiatry Residency Program Director a dozen years ago, where he helped to expand the residency program from three to six residents per year. Olson has moved the residency program toward outreach across the state, and today’s residents are trained in integrated care models.
“Rob has had an incredible impact on mental health workforce in our state and region over the years,” said Dr. Andy McLean, chair of the SMHS Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science. “Our psychiatry residency program began in 1980, and over the decades (including hundreds of graduates), there have been only 12 residents whom Rob has not supervised. And half of the psychiatrists practicing in the state are either UND medical school graduates, residency graduates, or both.”
Olson was awarded teacher of the year by the residents so many times that he took himself out of the running to allow other faculty to be recognized. He is quick to give credit to others for his successful career: staff, nurses, trainees, as well as his patients.
“Thank you, Dr. Olson,” added McLean. “Few physicians have had such a profound impact on healthcare in our state. Congratulations on your well-earned retirement. You will be missed!”
