Title:Inspired to listen & lead

In July 2024, Georgetown welcomed Norman J. Beauchamp Jr. as the new executive vice president for health sciences at the Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and executive dean of the School of Medicine. In addition to the medical school, GUMC includes the School of Health, School of Nursing, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Biomedical Graduate Education, and an extensive research portfolio. He also shepherds Georgetown’s academic health system partnership with MedStar Health. Beauchamp replaces Edward B. Healton, who concluded nine years of service in June.

A neurointerventional radiologist with an interdisciplinary background who specializes in stroke diagnosis and treatment, Beauchamp brings his clinical, educational, and research experience combined with extensive work leading major academic health systems. He has served as a department chair, medical school dean, president of a practice plan, executive vice president of health sciences, medical director of a free clinic, and chair of a university faculty senate.

Caring for others 

Growing up on his family’s farm and observing his mother’s career in community health led him to follow a calling in values-based medical leadership. 

“Until I was seven, we lived in a suburb of Boston,” Beauchamp recalls. “Then my parents decided to raise my brother and sisters and me on a farm, to further our work ethic and values. We moved to St. Johns, Michigan—my father’s home state—to a farm with 30 acres, 200 chickens, 20 cows, and four horses. And my parents said, ‘We’re going to work, and you all are raising cows, horses, and chickens.’” Beauchamp is grateful for all he learned in that environment and the sacrifices his parents made for their children. 

“I so appreciate my parents. My dad worked in aerospace and retooled to work for the state of Michigan. My mom was a community mental health worker.” Beauchamp would go to work with his mother, often witnessing people suffering. When you see people struggling, his mother insisted, it’s important to do something about it. 

“And that’s what led me to want to go into medicine.” 

Innovation at the intersection of disciplines 

Beauchamp studied biology at Michigan State University. His decision to remain there for medical school was guided by a conversation with his philosophy teacher, E. James Potchen. 

“He asked if I wanted to see what he did when he wasn’t teaching philosophy. He was a lawyer, horticulturist, philosophy teacher, economics teacher, family medicine doctor, and the chair of radiology—an inspirational Renaissance person. His passion for learning was only exceeded by his dedication to teaching others,” Beauchamp recalls. Potchen committed to helping him get a scholarship for medical school at Michigan State “if I promised that half of what I read, for the rest of my career, would be from outside of medicine.” 

Since that time, Beauchamp has been especially drawn to the intersection of disciplines, because he believes that is where advances in medicine take place. During his career, for example, he has served as a principal scientist of applied physics, and a professor of industrial engineering, neurosurgery, neurology, and neuro-radiology. 

“I realized that by learning about these different disciplines, I’d be best prepared to make a difference.” 

Expanding the window for stroke treatment 

After medical school, he continued on to Johns Hopkins University for his residency in radiology. Seeking to find ways to lessen the impact of diseases of the brain, he did a fellowship in neuro-radiology. During his fellowship, Beauchamp determined that he would focus his work on stroke prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. “Strokes can take away a person’s ability to interact with their loved ones and the world in an instant, and I wanted to help make better outcomes possible.” 

Following his fellowship, he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins. “We quickly established a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary team: physiologists, physicists, linguists, neuroradiologists, and neurologists.” 

Their goal was to discover and implement ways that would make it possible for more of the people stricken with an acute ischemic stroke to be treated safely. Specifically, the goal in treating an ischemic stroke is to return blood flow to the brain as quickly as possible. “It used to be that in order to safely remove the obstruction, guidelines mandated that treatment had to be initiated within three hours from the time the stroke occurred. However, it is very difficult for patients stricken with a stroke to recognize what has occurred to them, and then to get from home to the hospital, be evaluated, diagnosed, and treated in three hours. That happens for only about 4% of stroke patients. We recognized that in helping to invent a new way to image the human brain, we could extend that out to six hours or 12. That was our work.” 

He pursued a second fellowship in neurointervention, seeking the opportunity to further improve stroke outcomes. “With the new diagnostic methods in hand, I wanted to now help develop and deliver the indicated treatments. Using intravenous r-TPA to retrieve or dissolve clots via catheters placed directly into the arteries of the brain, we sought ways to optimize the devices and techniques.” 

Beauchamp then expanded his work to look at systems of care. “As we began to provide care that led to better outcomes for those who could access our care at Johns Hopkins, our attention appropriately extended to those that could not access our care. The mandate for just care, to bring hope and healing to all, expanded my focus to transforming health and health care delivery.“ Receiving a grant to attend Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, he obtained additional training. Beauchamp used statistical methods to drive improvements at Johns Hopkins, including expanding access to care, removing inefficiencies and waste, and lowering health care costs. He emphasized a “culture of caring built on a foundation of trust” that, when combined with quantitative approaches, empowers care team members, patients, and families. The work earned him a role as the vice chair of clinical operations in 1999. 

Deepening care and widening the reach 

In 2002 he moved to Seattle to join the University of Washington as department chair in radiology. It was a large department serving five hospitals. He also had the opportunity to serve as president of the University of Washington Clinician Practice. “One of the things that brought me to the University of Washington was that they were the only medical school for five states, so they had an incredible reach. In serving a department and across the practice, we could integrate discovery, education, and clinical care across all the areas of medicine and bring patient- and family-centric care to a vast number of people.” 

He also saw a need for more connection between the medical school and the rest of the university. Discovery, teaching, and bringing healing and health to all requires insights and effort from every college in a university, notes Beauchamp, from the arts to social sciences to policy, basic sciences to agriculture, psychology, economics, built environment, and industrial engineering. Participating in shared governance enabled forming necessary collaborations. As vice chair and then chair of the faculty senate, he helped lead a number of initiatives that brought the university together, including securing a $210 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create an Institute for Population Health. 

Beauchamp also sought opportunities to contribute through volunteerism. He helped launch and served as founding medical director for a free clinic. “The homeless, the underinsured, and the uninsured population is so underserved. A group of us came together to help lessen their struggle. We got permission to use a professional basketball arena for six days so we could establish a clinic with tremendous capacity.” They enlisted 100 dentists and set up 100 dental chairs, brought in hundreds of interprofessionals to deliver medical care and social services, and provided free items including socks, shoes, and eyeglasses. “Importantly, our efforts were guided by listening to and learning from those we served. We focused on people feeling supported from the moment they arrived on site to recommendations for follow-on care. Our providers were from every profession. We had translators, social workers, support animals, and dedicated volunteers from the community. We treated 4,000 people in four days and then we asked our patients: ‘How did we do? Did you feel cared for?’ 97% said they did. Health care, done correctly, is about all people feeling cared about and not feeling alone.” The successful Seattle/King County Clinic continues to this day. 

Returning to give back 

Beauchamp returned to Michigan State in 2016 as dean of the College of Human Medicine, in part to fulfill a promise to his mother to help make health care better in Michigan. He also wanted to give back to his alma mater. He focused on growing the school’s human health research, expanding the clinical practice, and driving health care innovation. 

He also led the effort to address structural and reporting issues in the university’s medical system, eventually creating and leading the Office of Health Sciences, which includes the university’s clinical practice, College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Allopathic Medicine and Public Health, and the College of Nursing. The efforts in restructuring were urgently called for in response to an ex-physician who, for at least 14 years of his career as the team doctor for the USA Gymnastics and an osteopathic physician at Michigan State University, abused children and young adult athletes. The failures that allowed a predator to persist were structural and cultural, notes Beauchamp, therefore restructuring, addressing issues of power, being trauma-informed, establishing chaperone and reporting policies, and empowering all voices was imperative. A culture of caring and healing drove the work enabling institutional transformation. 

During his tenure there, Beauchamp also served as coarchitect alongside leaders at Henry Ford Health in establishing a 30-year partnership between MSU Health Sciences and Henry Ford Health. The venture included a $2.5-billion-dollar initiative in Detroit for a new academic medical center, a research building that will focus on health disparities, a neurofibromatosis institute, and affordable housing in partnership with the Detroit Pistons. In addition, he led the establishment of a 675,000-square-foot health innovation hub in Grand Rapids to advance human health research and innovation, and to diversify sources of funding. MSU was also the first responder to the Flint Water Crisis, Beauchamp notes, working with the community to provide resources and programs in health. 

Listening and envisioning with Georgetown 

Beauchamp and his wife, Kristina, approach their lives with mission in mind. For both of them, coming to Georgetown and the nation’s capital felt like the right next step. “We talked together about how we take what we did at a state level and try to bring it to the nation and the world,” he says. “Being in the nation’s capital enables connections and partnerships to individuals and institutions dedicated to improving the human condition.” 

His faith also attracted him to the country’s oldest Catholic university, founded on Jesuit principles including expanding the common good, being people for others, and cura personalis, or caring for the whole person. “Health care and faith are about people feeling cared for, people not feeling alone in their time of need. The opportunity to align those efforts is powerful.” 

During his first months at Georgetown, Beauchamp set up a listening tour around the Medical Center and beyond, gathering a first sense of Georgetown’s strengths as well as opportunities to expand and deepen impact. His goal was to find areas that would bring together the strengths across the university in a way that could do the greatest good for the most people.

“I asked how we are creating opportunities for students to learn and be involved in discovery such that they can realize the goals that brought them to Georgetown. Similarly, I sought to discover how we empower and support the staff and faculty in their missions of impact. I also looked at what areas of focus would allow us to fully realize the potential of being an academic health system, possible because of the extraordinary 50-year partnership between Georgetown and MedStar, a world-class health system with over 400 sites of care delivery. Finally, I asked people to think about a great unmet need in our world and how we at Georgetown are best able to respond to that need: where we are passionate, where we can be preeminent, and how we can uniquely lessen the struggle of those we serve.”

Excellence and caring for the common good

“Indeed, the listening tour confirmed that Georgetown is a place with an unparalleled concentration of individuals and groups committed to helping others and with countless areas of excellence,” Beauchamp shares.

He identified five areas of convergence: cancer, restoring brain function, health equity, global health, and the establishment of an innovation district.

“One area of growth for us is in human health research, specifically NIH-funded research. To bring health and healing to more people, we have to discover new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease and to ensure our graduates are imbued with this knowledge. There is extraordinary work ongoing; the goal is to support and further expand those efforts.”

Cancer research and care excel at Georgetown, notes Beauchamp.

“Our work in oncology is really extraordinary. Recognized as an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Lombardi is a treasure. We have an opportunity to make advanced care and participation in clinical trials even more accessible to all. Fundamentally, we want to bring the very best in cancer care to where people live. The support of family and community is a key element in ‘caring for the whole person’ during cancer treatment.”

Another strength he’s identified is in his area of clinical expertise: stroke. He observed a tremendous expertise in the treatment of stroke and in rehabilitation care. Moreover, the depth and breadth of research in return of function is also unparalleled, he adds.

“Bringing together these strengths, along with those in basic science and neuroengineering, would allow us to create and deliver support to those stricken by stroke. Importantly, emphasizing return of function will also build on and support work being done in neurologic disorders and trauma.”

“After a stroke or after a significant trauma, there’s all this energy around the hospitalization. But when people go home, they wonder, ‘Where’s my support? How do I try to get function back?’ At Georgetown we have some of the best research in return of function that I’ve seen anywhere. How do we make the most of this?”

Global health is an enduring standout strength at Georgetown, notes Beauchamp, particularly its emphasis on building sustainability or capacity in country. His first months at Georgetown included an audience with Pope Francis in September, as part of an initiative with Georgetown’s Global Health Institute to support a worldwide network created by the Vatican that provides medical care to children and sup- ports health care workers in the field.

Beauchamp will continue prioritizing health equity as a Georgetown value, addressing health disparities through overcoming barriers to health and expanding pathway programs, increasing community engagement, and promoting human dignity.

Opportunities ahead

As the academic health system partnership with MedStar Health enters its 25th year, Beauchamp plans to deepen the relationship. In 2017, Georgetown University and MedStar Health finalized new long-term agreements that span a 50-year term, reaffirming the joint commitment to the partnership. Another important area of focus for Beauchamp is the university’s expanding health and medical presence at the Capitol Campus downtown. Home to the Georgetown University Law Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy, the location offers health and medical students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to immerse themselves in a learning environment with close proximity to other policymaking people and institutions.

Programs at the Capitol Campus include the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, the Center for Global Health Sciences and Security, the Health Justice Alliance, and the Georgetown-Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice. Both the School of Health and the School of Nursing plan to offer courses and research endeavors there in the coming year.

Back on the Medical Center campus, Beauchamp sees opportunities to improve the physical infrastructure. “Part of the work is to create spaces that are more appropriate for our faculty to do research, and spaces to better educate our students.”

His long-term vision will include innovation districts like the one he shepherded in Detroit, enhancing Georgetown’s position as an academic incubator. He sees an opportunity to more fully integrate innovation with Jesuit values, fostering collaboration among students, faculty, government, and industry to drive cutting-edge research and clinical excellence. Innovation districts also create jobs, economic resilience, healthy environments to live and play, and access to education for all, he notes. “If we are to improve health, we have to address the social determinants of disease.”

Finally, he is committed to boosting philanthropy and diversification of funding in order to support these efforts, as well as to substantially reduce the debt load for Georgetown nursing, health, biomedical, and medical graduates. “For our education to be accessible to all, we have to find ways to lower the cost of a Georgetown degree. We also have to lessen the debt they graduate with so that the path they follow and the communities they serve are defined by the impact they seek to have, not the debt they need to resolve.”

“My overwhelming takeaway from the first 90 days is gratitude. People here are deeply committed and inspired. I am so blessed to be able to join this community. My commitment is to continue to listen and learn and to do all I can to support the great people of this institution as we together hasten the pace to bring hope and healing to all.”