Dr. Selwyn Vickers
The Reformer
Changing the system from inside it, principle turned into change.
Dr. Selwyn Vickers reads as The Reformer because he took charge of Memorial Sloan Kettering as an outsider tasked with modernising a storied institution without diminishing its excellence. His career in academic medicine, including leadership of UAB's health system, was built on redesigning how research, care delivery, and equity intersect.
“Yeah, so on my father's side, it was really parents who themselves had limited education. My grandfather with fourth grade education who didn't learn how to write and read until he was in his 40s, who really felt his children needed a college education.”
“You know, my mother did to a degree she saw a large part of success as it relates to both my family. She lived to see my four kids born, which was immense since I was an only child. I think she certainly desired a larger family.”
“So there was a surgeon there who was from Alabama, a guy named Levi Watkins, who became a mentor and friend. And he grew up in Alabama where my grandmother and my mother went to the college where his father was president.”
“Are three fundamental things. Number one, they do everything in teams, their operations, their patience they see is all team focused. Number two, they value process, but they hold themselves very much accountable to execution. They understand that it's good to explore a patient, but what really matters is that you take the tumor out.”
The David Rubenstein Show: “Dr. Selwyn Vickers”
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