It’s time for a med school update.
The architectural engineering firm that will design the school in Kalamazoo has been chosen and two women from Southwest Michigan have accepted positions with Western Michigan University’s School of Medicine, the first two new hires by the school.
The design firm for the upcoming project is
The S/L/A/M Collaborative, a nationally known, Connecticut-based architectural and engineering firm. The firm has an extensive portfolio in medical and health science facilities.
Some examples are:
• Duke University's new School of Medicine Learning Center, to be completed in 2012;
• The Emory University School of Medicine, completed in 2007, at the Pediatric Research Center at Emory and a major expansion of the Rollins School of Public finished in 2004;
• The University of Notre Dame's Jordan Hall of Science, completed in 2006; and
• Pfizer's Clinical Research Unit in New Haven, Conn., finished in 2005.
SLAM also has designed multiple hospitals, research sites and higher education facilities around the nation. Its portfolio can be found
here.
A selection committee screened 25 applications from 25 firms and recommended a list of finalists to the school’s steering committee, which picked the firm that has offices in Atlanta, Boston and Syracuse, N.Y.
They will work with Diekema Hamann Architecture and Engineering from the Kalamazoo area.
On the hiring front, Michele Serbenski has been named director of planning and performance excellence and will serve as a member of the senior leadership team for the medical school. Kathy Morocco has named to serve as executive administrative assistant to the dean.
Serbenski is responsible for strategy development and execution and oversees the school's accreditation efforts as it prepares for a fall 2014 launch. She comes to
WMU from Kalamazoo's Bronson Healthcare Group, where she spent the past 17 years as a member of the executive team.
Her background includes extensive work in planning, performance improvement, organizational development and customer service. Her previous experience also includes work in organizational communication with the Whirlpool Corp.
Morocco has an extensive background as an executive assistant to several leading Midwest business and medical leaders, including work for the CFO of Akznobel Deco Paints of Strongsville, Ohio. the chairman of the Pediatric Institute of the Cleveland Clinic and for the Truck Group president at the company's Cleveland headquarters of the Eaton Corp.
Serbenski and Morocco join two previously for WMU who moved into new roles once the dean of the medical school was hired: Dr. Jack Luderer, interim dean, became associate dean for research for the School of Medicine and Sherrill Busboom, who provided administrative support for the medical school initiative and its committees remains in that role.
The new
medical school is a partnership between WMU and Kalamazoo's two teaching hospitals, Borgess Health and Bronson Healthcare. WMU’s president, hospital CEOs and the medical school dean make up the steering committee.
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Source: Cheryl Roland, Western Michigan University
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