The last couple of weeks have brought some significant transition announcements to our department. The retirements of two remarkable and beloved faculty members, Dr. Lynn Oliver and Dr. Lucille Marchand, have inspired so much gratitude. They have each contributed to the DFM in profound and lasting ways.
We also have exciting news about two of our DFM leaders, Dr. Freddy Chen and Dr. Matthew Thompson. Both will be leaving us in the coming weeks to pursue remarkable new challenges with the AMA and with Google, respectively. While we are so sorry to see them go, we are proud that our Department of Family Medicine is a place that facilitates and supports the growth of faculty to reach their next goal and pursue their passions.
Lynn Oliver MD, DTM&H, is retiring on June 3, 2022 after a long and highly successful career as a member of our faculty. Lynn is a tireless advocate for high quality and cost-effective patient care and has been a frequent recipient of UWMC awards for patient satisfaction. For months, her patients have been expressing their sadness at losing her as their doctor. She is a champion for women’s health and has been instrumental in the education of residents about cervical dysplasia, colposcopy, and pregnancy termination.
Lynn is a Husky through and through. She attended UW as an undergraduate and as a medical student, completed her family medicine residency with us here at DFM, and joined the faculty three years after completing residency, and following some time in private practice. She was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha in 2017.
During her 33 years as regular faculty, Lynn served in many roles, always as a clinician and an educator. Until a few years ago, she practiced full spectrum family medicine, including obstetrics and hospital medicine, and in that capacity has been a loved mentor and teacher of our residents. She included medical students in her practice throughout and was a founding member of the UW School of Medicine Colleges, until 2019 teaching and mentoring 24 students at a time (6 in each class). She had a number of curricular responsibilities as residency faculty and in recent years, she joined the Medical Student Education section, serving as faculty on the Underserved Pathway and for the Primary Care Practicum.
From 1997-2005, Lynn was a co-author of Mosby’s 1997 Medical Drug Reference and she has a number of other publications. She obtained the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from The Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical & Preventive Medicine in Lima, Peru in 2015 and has been a volunteer in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Bhutan. Lynn epitomizes the model for a Family Medicine physician and educator.
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Lucille Marchand, MD, BSN, FAAHPM. FAAFP, is retiring June 30, 2022. Lu has served as Executive Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at University of WA; Stuart J Farber, MD and Annalu Farber Endowed Professor in Palliative Care Education; and Section Head of Palliative Care, Department of Family Medicine. As Lu prepared for this transition last summer she shared the following with the department:
What I’m most proud of:
- All of the warm and collaborative relationships I’ve had with colleagues and staff in the DFM. Thank you Misbah Keen for your friendship, guidance and creativity. Your kindness and generosity welcomed me to the DFM. Mina Marcher, thank you for getting me through the pandemic with your cheerfulness and support.
- Establishing the Palliative Care Section in the DFM and further developing a UWMC PC program aligned with the vision of Stu Farber. The PC team at Montlake is stellar, serving our community with care and skill. They are amazing clinicians and teachers. Thanks to Jim Fausto in particular for partnering with me to navigate all the bumps in the road to success.
- Creation of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and Clinic, and all the collaborations we have established for maximum impact in clinical care, education and research. Thanks to Iman Majd and Donna Lewin for partnering with me to navigate all the bumps in the IM road to success.
- Helping to lead and transform Dr. Rachel Remen’s Healer’s Art elective course at UW from a focus solely on medical students to including all health science learners and faculty, and being a leader in interprofessional education in resilience, mutual respect and honoring our call to service.
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Shared by Freddy Chen – “Dear colleagues: After more than 25 years, I have made the difficult decision to leave our Department and UW. I have accepted a senior position at the American Medical Association as the Chief Health and Science Officer. In this role I will help lead public health, science and research policy at the AMA.
I am tremendously grateful for your support throughout my career here at UW. I came to UW in 1996 as a resident in our department and have worked in research, medical student education, UWNC, the Harborview residency, and the WWAMI residency Network. It is no exaggeration to say that the faculty, staff and residents of this department have made me who I am as a family doctor, teacher, researcher, Professor and leader. I will always be an academic family physician and promise to bring our important perspective to the AMA.
In addition to my deep appreciation for each of you, I am also sad to leave my patients and clinical practice at Harborview. Some of you will appreciate the challenge of ending patient care relationships that have endured over twenty years. I do not take this departure lightly and will help my patients through this transition. This departure is partially tempered because I will be splitting time between Chicago and Seattle and plan to continue some teaching with my new position.
Thank you for your fine work and dedication to family medicine and our department.”
[AMA Press Release June 8, 2022]———-
Shared by Dr. Paul James, DFM Chair: “Dr. Matthew Thompson has accepted a new role at Google based here in Seattle beginning in July where he will have the opportunity to conduct clinical research and build research capacity as part of Google’s growing interest in healthcare. Dr. Thompson is the perfect candidate for this position as they sought someone with an international perspective and experience in both the USA and the UK. It is exciting for me to see family physicians sought after for their expertise, knowledge and perspective on healthcare.
Matthew has been critically important in supporting the growth and development of our Research Section, leading important research, developing the Primary Care Innovations Laboratory and he served as Interim Chair of the Department of Family Medicine during a critical junction in the department’s history. He is an outstanding clinician, teacher and researcher and we will seek ways to keep him connected to his family here at UW. Our Research Section Head, Dr. Kari Stephens, will be assisting me in assessing our current research environment and strategic planning to continue to grow our portfolio of research.”