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Leadership

Lessons from Sherm

Dr. Sherman M. Mellinkoff was a visionary leader, a humble man of quiet greatness who put UCLA’s medical school on its path to excellence. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, we honor his memory.

John C. Mazziotta, MD, PhD

John C. Mazziotta, MD, PhD. Photo: Courtesy of UCLA Health

Leadership is the title for this section of U Magazine, and within this space I would like to tell you about a leader who was among the most influential in my life. Dr. Sherman M. Mellinkoff was dean of the school of medicine when I first came to UCLA as a trainee in the late 1970s. He had been dean — the second in the history of what was then still a very young medical school — since 1962 and had achieved such stature that he was known among his peers in academic medicine as the “Dean of Deans.”

While he was “Dean of Deans” on the national stage, to those of us who knew and worked with him every day, he was simply Sherm, a one-of-a-kind leader of immense integrity, unassuming yet worldly, a true statesman.

After completing my training, I joined the UCLA faculty and then took on leadership roles. I had many interactions with Sherm, and he and I became good friends. He was fond of jotting down his thoughts and sending notes to me and other faculty. Sherm retired as dean in 1986. In the eight years before his death, in 2016, at the age of 96, I’d walk past his house on my way home after work and sometimes would stop in, and we would have tea and cookies — always tea and cookies — and talk. Despite his frail physical state, his mind was sharp and inquisitive, and our talks were filled with references to mythology or the Peloponnesian War — subjects I hadn’t contemplated since college — the classics of literature and wide-ranging discussions of so many other topics. I still cherish those visits with Sherm.

When he was dean, I would occasionally go to his office to talk about a problem or to ask for resources, and after I would leave feeling calm and relaxed. It really was remarkable. You could be fuming over something, and in the end, you came away mesmerized by his graciousness and his ability to defuse the emotional part of any issue. Whether the answer was “We can do that” or “We can’t do that” or “We can do part of that,” he would help to solve the problem, always with a strategic goal in mind. Ninety-nine percent of what he did was getting you back to a place where you could hear and accept the answer, whatever it was. That is a great skill to have as a leader, to be able to separate the emotion and other factors from the specifics of the decision.

For Sherm, being dean was never about him. He believed that the purpose of a dean was to serve the faculty and trainees, and he devoted his life to those goals. He sought to foster greatness in others. He was friendly and at ease and always appeared to have an infinite amount of time to share with you. On what would be the occasion of Sherm’s 100th birthday in March, another UCLA colleague, Dr. Claire Panosian Dunavan, writes more about these qualities and shares memories of the man she knew as a close friend.

Sherm served the UCLA School of Medicine as dean for nearly a quarter-century — an incredible feat, considering that the median tenure for first-time deans of medical schools in the U.S. is around six years. Truly, he was the “Dean of Deans.” Under Sherm’s extraordinary leadership, UCLA’s medical school grew from a fledgling institution to one with a national reputation for outstanding medical education and groundbreaking research.

In 2015, UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block asked me to take on the combined roles of dean, CEO of UCLA Health and vice chancellor for UCLA Health Sciences. As I thought about whether or not it was possible — or even desirable — to assume all those roles, I called Sherm for advice. “What do you think?” I asked him. He didn’t answer right away. Then he said just one word: “Tea.” We picked a day, and I went to see him. He wanted to understand what the jobs were like today; they are far different from when he was at the helm. Then, it was more of a mom-and-pop operation, a start-up engaged in building and growth, as opposed to today’s huge business enterprise that involves a massive medical school and an expansive health care system with hospitals and clinics throughout the region.

“I have a couple of suggestions for you,” he said, after listening thoughtfully. “Number one, do it.” Then he added, “Be yourself, do the right things and, most of all, make sure that every single day you’re having fun doing it.” I asked, “How would you advise me to optimize the fun part of this job?” “Be of good cheer,” he said. That’s what he always would say when parting ways, “Be of good cheer.” Such was his constant refrain: Be upbeat. Be positive. Be a part of the solution. Enjoy what you are doing.

What are the lessons I learned from Sherm that serve me today as a leader? Here are five.

John C. Mazziotta, MD, PhD

John C. Mazziotta, MD, PhD

  • Always be calm. Being calm is an essential quality for a leader to have. If you aren’t calm, people worry that there is a crisis and that you are uncertain about what to do.
  • Think strategically. Having a clear and well-articulated set of strategic goals that everyone understands simplifies leadership. We can’t do everything, so have a framework for deciding, among all the good ideas, which ones to actually invest in.
  • Separate decisions that are ethical or moral from those that are strategic or tactical. Ethical or moral decisions offer a binary choice — they either cross a line or they don’t. Decisions that are strategic or tactical must be evaluated against a strategic plan.
  • Separate the process and the decision from the emotion and the personalities involved.
  • Do the job because you love it and you’re having a good time.

The week after Sherm’s death, all the department chairs, research unit directors and health system leadership met in the room in the Center for Health Sciences where the portraits of the past deans of the school of medicine were hung. We stood in silence and looked at Sherm’s kind face and remembered who he was and what we all owe to him. I am grateful to continue to benefit from Sherm’s vision and wisdom.

Dr. John C. Mazziotta

Dr. John C. Mazziotta, MD (RES ’81, FEL ’83), PhD
Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences
CEO, UCLA Health


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Winter 2020

Winter 2020
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IN THIS ISSUE
  • Lessons from Sherm
  • Father’s X Chromosome May Yield Clues to Higher Rates of Autoimmune Disease in Women
  • Researchers Create Accurate Model of Organ Scarring
  • Biomarker Predicts Which Heart-failure Patients at Higher Risk of Death within One-to-three Years
  • Targeted Therapy Drug Extends Lives of Women with Aggressive Breast Cancer
  • Can a “Battery Leak” Trigger the Onset of Type 2 Diabetes?
  • Molecular Changes in Cells of Eye’s Lens Predict Future Cataracts
  • UCLA Addresses Increasing Demand with New Master’s in Genetic Counseling
  • Truth Seeker
  • Sherm
  • Repairing and Reversing Damage Caused by Huntington’s Disease
  • Cells’ Mitochondria Work Much Like Tesla Battery Packs
  • The Who and Friends Rock Private Show for UCLA Health and Teen Cancer America
  • A Confounding Case
  • Body Image Concerns Are Universal
  • “We Do Better with Diversity”
  • Annual UCLA Health System Board Meeting Turns Its Focus to Cardiac Care
  • UCLA Operation Mend Cheered on at New York City Veterans Day Parade
  • A Decade in Review: 7 Exciting Health Care Breakthroughs
  • MRI May Help Doctors Differentiate Causes of Memory Loss
  • On the Road to Health Care Equality
  • Learning To Listen
  • Photo Synthesis
  • Awards & Honors
  • In Memoriam
  • David Geffen Adds $46 Million to Landmark Medical Scholarships Program
  • Nearly 2,000 Guests Attend Party on the Pier for UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital
  • Golden Visionary Ball Raises More than $1 Million for UCLA Neurosurgery
  • Dr. Hans Gritsch Named Inaugural Chair in Kidney Transplantation
  • Nonprofit Heart of the Brain Fuels the Fight against Brain Cancer
  • UCLA Supporters Raise Money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
  • Dancing for NED Fundraiser Fights Ovarian Cancer
  • Gifts
  • In Memoriam
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