Anne Larkin, MD, has many roles at UMass Medical School. As senior associate dean for educational affairs, her responsibilities include selecting medical students through the admissions committee and overseeing the curriculum of the MD degree. She’s also the vice chair and associate professor of surgery. But medicine wasn’t her first career choice.
“Initially I wanted to be a Broadway star,” Dr. Larkin said in a new Voices of UMassMed podcast. “Once I got into college, I realized that career was going to be tougher than I initially anticipated. When I realized that music was not going to be in my future, it was all about medicine.”
Larkin described her path to medicine, her family’s longstanding military service and how her experience in the U.S. Navy prepared her to become a surgeon.
“The traits I brought to it were commitment and dedication. What I took away from it though was much greater than that. It taught me leadership skills. It taught me how to be resilient. It taught me how to get a job done,” Larkin said.
The podcast conversation also focuses on Dr. Larkin’s goals for the future of medical education at the medical school and highlights new opportunities medical students will have on campus in Worcester.
“One is the opportunity for a very different innovate way of teaching students (by) utilizing online curriculum, expanding small groups and problem-based learning. The other part of it is expanding our interprofessional education,” she said.
To listen to other episodes of the Voices of UMassMed podcast, visit: umassmed.edu/news/voices.
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