Davidson "Sage" Will Lead National Health Advisors Assn.
Putnam working with students in comparative anatomy lab.
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1/5/2004
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
Jerry Putnam had been enthusiastically cleaning up his lab for two days, dusting, rearranging drawers of instruments and flasks, and re-cataloguing a disorderly collection of 2,000 slides picturing anatomical parts of the body. “I’ve been bringing order out of chaos for the last few days, fantasizing that the entropy of my world has been decreased. And it has put me in an incredibly good mood!” he crowed.
Putnam was glowing because he professes to have received “a new lease on life” to continue “professing” at Davidson College for the next six years, because he has been elected for that time as the president of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Profession (NAAHP). This non-profit public service group brings together people in education like Putnam who advise college students about health care careers, admissions officials at health care graduate schools, and practicing health care professionals.
The appointment has reinvigorated this Davidson biologist whose efforts as premedical director during the past ten years have polished bright the college’s longstanding reputation as the outstanding undergraduate preparation for graduate studies in health care. “I’ve got some more time,” he grinned. “And this is coming from a man who swore at age thirty-three he was going to retire at fifty-five. The closer I got to that age the more I wanted to push it. Now I’m sixty-four and still want to push it. I have no interest in retiring, and am thrilled to death to have this new purpose.”
“The Sage” has risen again above his “humble stock.”
Putnam keeps these two pictures on his wall as a reminder that evolution can take a species only so far!
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Of course, no one but a few Davidson alumni of the 1970s call him “The Sage” anymore, but he still loves playing the character. A coterie of students during that time tagged him with that moniker while sharing with him hours of scientific, social, and philosophical intercourse in the office that came to be known, “The Inner Sanctum.” A small plaque inscribed with that title is still located just above the light switch.
In that era, shortly after Putnam began teaching at Davidson in 1973, it was not unusual for forty or fifty students to accept an invitation to dine at his house, and they might well stay until 2 a.m. “It was all very egalitarian,” he reminisced. “In the Inner Sanctum I was ‘The Mentor to the People,’ and we pondered deep, ‘meaning of life’ questions. We felt like we were discussing significant things, and I loved that.“
The persona was enforced through his grin and heavy glasses worn since childhood. He claims he can get lost in the corner of a room without his glasses, but endures his failing vision with the same good humor as did his grandfather, who told him, “There’s just so much going on in the world that I no longer care about not hearing or seeing it.”
Though he earned his academic degrees in zoology and has conducted extensive research on the anatomy of the heart, Putnam became The Sage through the breadth of his knowledge. Teaching at Davidson has allowed him to cultivate his literary and philosophical tendencies, as well as his scientific expertise. Putnam collaborated with Professor of English Gill Holland, a Victorian literature scholar to team-teach a course in “Victorian Literature and Science,” in which Putnam covered Darwin. Their work over several years even led to an invitation to present a paper on “Lord Jim’s Death in Light of Evolutionary Theories” in Canterbury, England, at the International Congress of the Joseph Conrad Society.
One of his early students wrote, “He truly taught not only about science, but about life.”
Putnam taught comparative anatomy, histology, and pathology, and developed new courses in “History of Biology” and neuroanatomy. He established electron microscopy at Davidson, refurbished the Porter museum of scientific specimens, and established studies in human anatomy at the Bowman-Gray School of Medicine. Though he thinks he could have become a good physician, his interests are broader than that. He explained, “I’m fascinated by the mechanism of disease, but never wanted to be a doctor. I’m more inclined to live the contemplative life. I’m one who enjoys meaning of knowledge more than its practical application.”
The deep relationship between students and mentor in the late 1970s created a trust, and a love of word play so rich that students one day literally threw asparagus at The Sage instead of “casting aspersions” at him as they usually did. Conversation was peppered with puns and literary jokes. Putnam’s self-mockery led him to cite any particularly insightful student comment as a quote from “Jeremiah 3:16,” a reference to the “John 3:16” placard seen on televised sports events.
Putnam theatrically accepted his role as "The Sage" for students on this occasion in 1977.
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The intensity of their intellectual energy climaxed one day when twenty students ambushed him in the middle of class with lemon meringue pies. “Of course, I knew it was coming,” he said with a twinkle. “I turned back from the board to the class and there were twenty students staring at me through eye holes in grocery bags over their heads. Then here came the pies! I was covered with so much meringue that the cocker spaniel went crazy licking me. I was proud of it, though. Proud that they would go to the trouble.”
He loved it, and students loved him. In 1980-81 they selected him as the second-ever winner of the ODK Teaching Award. “I got the second one after Charlie Ratliff (a legendary and beloved professor of economics) got the first. I thought that was doing allright,” he said. Putnam also won the Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award in 1993, the second year it was presented.
Though he reflects fondly on those amiable days of the Inner Sanctum, he doesn’t wallow in nostalgia. “It suits me to be more conservative now, “ he said. “And students look at me differently because I’m not a young man anymore.”
The times are different, too. Today’s students seek out a different kind of sage to meet their needs, and Putnam still delivers. The students who take his classes and participate in the premedical program as more serious, diligent, and career-motivated. They have to be, he admits, because a college degree is no longer a guarantee that “the system” will provide an immediate job, a lifetime’s employment, and a cushy retirement.
This generation seeks connections for networking, and insightful counseling about career tracks. Putnam can answer their questions about how significantly the University of Chicago considers test scores, and how heavily Harvard Medical School weighs medical internships. And when they haven’t heard back from an institution where they applied, Putnam can contact the dean there with first name familiarity and find out what’s going on.
Davidson has been tops in undergraduate preparation of future M.D.’s for decades. More than 2,500 of the college’s 18,350 alumni currently practice health care as doctors, dentists, opticians, nurses, pharmacists, or hospital administrators. An additional twenty-five or so seniors a year join them, as do a small number of recent Davidson graduates. For the past ten years, under Putnam’s leadership, the college has enjoyed an exceptionally high rate of acceptance of its students into medical schools. While there are just 16,000 slots in the nation’s 126 medical schools per year for an average of 33,000 applicants, Davidson students are accepted at a rate of ninety to one-hundred percent.
The NAAHP will be the third stage of his career. The first stage was exclusively centered on students and the classroom. The second stage comprises the last ten he has spent directing Davidson’s premedical program, which has led to his leadership of NAAHP.
What excites Putnam enough about the NAAHP appointment to send him cleaning his lab is the opportunity to grow his circle of human relationships still further, doing what comes naturally, bringing people together.
“You get to be president by organizing conventions,” Putnam revealed. His NAAHP involvement began in 1993 when he founded the Health Professions Advisors of North Carolina, and organized its inaugural meeting at East Carolina School of Medicine. He led that state-wide group for several years, then was elected president of the NAAHP-affiliated Southeast Association of Health Care Advisors for the Health Professions. Putnam put together a very strong lineup of speakers and activities for the regional group’s meeting in San Antonio in 2002. The national board took notice of his work, and asked him to serve on its board. Now, just a year later, the national board has put him on its presidential track. His primary task is organization of the upcoming NAAHP national convention in Washington, D.C.
Susan Maxwell, executive director of the NAAHP, said convention organization involves a tremendous amount of responsibility. “We’re expecting 700 people for a five-day meeting,” she said. “Jerry’s completely in charge of the fifty people who will be on the program. He calls to invite them to speak, and figures out with them what they’ll say and how that relates to other speakers. He’s also got to take care of little details, like their AV needs, and daily schedule.”
Though NAAHP duties will require a lot of travel, Putnam will continue his teaching duties at Davidson.
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His six-year commitment begins July 1 at the meeting in Washington. Putnam will be president-elect from 2004-2006, president for 2006-2008, and past-president from 2008-2010. “I’ll ‘ascend to the throne’ at our Portland meeting,” he joked. The organization serves as a clearing house for opinions of advisors and news from allopathic and osteopathic medicine, chiropractic, dental, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant, podiatric medical, public health, and veterinary medical schools.
NAAHP meetings offers members an opportunity to explore common issues. Sessions include updates on developments in all the health professions, as well as discussion of current issues. Members hear from representatives of the NAAHP advisory counsel, which includes the American Medical Association, AAMC, American Dental Association, American Association of Osteopathic Medicine, American Association of Pharmacy, and other professional groups.
Putnam said the broad range of advisory organizations reflects an evolution in the practice of medicine. “Medicine is now viewed as more of team effort,” he said. “Doctors are maybe still at the head of the team, but they depend on partnerships with nurses, public health officials, x-ray technicians, pharmacists, optometrists, and others.”
Putnam said the NAAHP faces several issues. One concerns plans to include a “listening skills” section to the medical school admission test (MCAT). Putnam explained, “The Association of American Medical Colleges is trying to develop a section of the test that would help determine whether a candidate is capable of understanding what a patient is really saying. But it’s somewhat controversial because we fear the grading may be too subjective. The NAAHP wants to be included in discussion of that issue.”
Another issue concerns MCAT preparation courses. At least two commercial firms have traditionally offered such courses to undergraduate students. However, some universities have also begun offering their own MCAT preparation courses, and people fear those institutions will force students to take their own prep courses, and cut the private firms out of the market on their campuses.
Debate also swirls around course requirements for premed students. Current requirements mandate two biology courses, four chemistry, and two physics. Putnam believes that recent advances in the areas of molecular biology and genomics are transforming medicine, and consequently believes it’s time to require premed students to take more biology.
The need to “humanize” the practice of medicine also concerns him a great deal. “Some schools think that you just need to be a good scientist to be a good doctor,” he said. “But I think it’s pretty clear that the profession requires individuals to be broad-minded, to be culturally aware, and to appreciate diversity. That type of awareness can have a tremendous impact on whether a doctor can really understand what’s wrong with a patient.”
Putnam and the Executive Director Susan Maxwell are working with New York City’s Gold Foundation to create an awards program that recognizes students who demonstrate exemplary humanistic skills in their study of medicine.
His presidency will involve a lot of traveling, but with the miles come invaluable opportunities to meet deans of admissions of medical schools, other advisors like himself, and practicing professionals. “Med schools all have different characteristics, and if you are aware of their different emphases and needs, you can be much more effective in placing students,” he said.
The advantage works both ways. Medical school deans who develop a personal relationship with Putnam through NAAHP learn more about Davidson, and are more likely to entertain applicants with Davidson credentials. Putnam recalled, “The dean from the University of Texas San Antonio visited here, and said afterward that he would interview any student from Davidson. That’s the type of thing I work for.”
Hugo Lane, a professor of biology at Wake Forest, is a longtime colleague and current president of the NAAHP. Lane said Putnam is already doing what it takes to help premedical students succeed. “Jerry has traveled more than anyone I know visiting admissions offices,” said Lane. “He exerts enormous efforts on behalf of his students, and it’s that, rather than the title of president, that benefits his Davidson students.”
While some students claim that “Dr. Putnam got me into medical school,” he knows better. “Most Davidson students will get into medical school if they work hard at it,” Putnam said. “My job is to make sure their decision is well considered, and that they stay on track toward their goal.”
His role as premedical adviser begins their first semester on campus, when he urges them to come in and discuss their plans. He guides them in building a strong academic and extracurricular resumé, and in applying to a school that matches their interests and aptitudes. In addition, if a student’s application needs attention, Putnam will pick up the phone and offer admissions officials his personal testimony.
Since Davidson’s placement rate is so high, Putnam likes to focus on where students should apply. “I encourage students to shoot for the top, to shoot above what they think they can do,” he said.
Last year three students were admitted to Washington University School of Medicine, which Putnam termed the top school in the country. Davidson students are also studying at Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Yale, and Baylor.
Verna Case, biology department chair, said, “He knows how to help students maximize their chances, and is able through his interactions with others to promote the Davidson student so that they aren’t just one in pile of applicants; they’re someone special.”
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