Kurt Newman, M.D., Turned a Two-Year Fellowship into a Lead Role at Children’s National Health System
Tere was a time when Kurt Newman, M.D., president and CEO of Children’s National Health System, considered a career in politics. “I was a very idealistic undergraduate,” he recalls. “I knew I wanted to make a positive impact on our society.” Fortunately, a summer job as an orderly in the emergency department at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital, now UNC Health Care, demonstrated to Newman that he could make that impact within the field of medicine.
“I fell in love with medicine that summer,” says Newman, who also serves as a professor of surgery and pediatrics at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS). “I just loved the interaction with patients and I saw a way to incorporate my interest in science with helping people directly.” His initial intention was to become a cardiologist, but, while pursuing his M.D. at the Duke University School of Medicine, Newman had a personal encounter that altered the course of his studies. “I had such a positive experience with the surgeon who treated me for a thyroid tumor that I decided that was the career for me.”
The direction of Newman’s career has been largely influenced by serendipitous events — a theme that he plans to highlight during his commencement address to the SMHS M.D. Class of 2014. “I want to encourage students to stay open to new ideas and to let things resonate,” he says. “Don’t create a plan that doesn’t allow for unexpected opportunities to arise.” Newman, who claims to never have envisioned becoming the president of a hospital, believes that “it’s never too late to go in a new direction. You just don’t know where it might lead.”
In 1984, Newman embarked upon a two-year pediatric surgery fellowship at Children’s National, which houses SMHS’ Department of Pediatrics. “It’s been almost 30 years since then, and I’m still here,” he observes, with a chuckle. His dedication to the hospital and its partnership with SMHS throughout the decades is indisputable.
“Dr. Newman’s gracious, easygoing manner, as well as his talent for medicine, research, and education, has led him to become an admirable leader at Children’s National during a period of tremendous growth,” says Jeffrey S. Akman, M.D. ’81, RESD ’85, Walter A. Bloedorn Professor of Administrative Medicine, vice president for health affairs, and dean of SMHS. “I can’t think of a better person to issue a charge to our graduates as they prepare to take the next step in their commitment to our profession, to our communities, and to the lives of others.”
Newman held a variety of leadership positions at Children’s National before assuming the presidency, including surgeon-in-chief, senior vice president for the Joseph E. Robert Jr. Center for Surgical Care, and co-founder and acting vice president for the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. “He’s the best talent scout there is,” says Andrea Badillo, M.D. ’00, RESD ’09, assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at SMHS and attending surgeon at Children’s National. “He finds good people and brings them together to do innovative things.”
Badillo, who was mentored by Newman throughout her SMHS medical education and residency, greatly valued his generosity with his time. “He was very open about his own development as a surgeon and helped advocate for me as I pursued the field,” she says. “It’s an incredible thing to find such a warm person in a professional environment.”
Newman cites Children’s National’s significant role in the Washington, D.C., community as one of the most rewarding aspects of serving as its president. “Most children’s hospitals will attempt either to be the safety net for all — caring for children in the community regardless of their families’ financial resources — or to become a nationally ranked hospital with high-end specialty care and renowned researchers,” he explains. “Children’s National has always had the dual dream of doing both.”
Despite his gratitude to the surgical team at GW, who embraced him as a part of their community early in his career — “It was very meaningful to me, being away from where the mainstream crowd was in surgery” — Newman considers Children’s National to be his family. It’s even where he met his wife, Alison, a neonatal nurse practitioner, in 1986. “It’s the most exciting place to practice, to lead, to educate, and to talk about the importance of what we’re doing,” he says. “And that’s where I get my kicks.”
