Deborah German was appointed founding dean of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in December 2006 following a distinguished career at Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. She has overseen the construction of UCF’s 375,000-square-foot medical school at Lake Nona and is now helping to build a joint UCF-Hospital Corporation of America academic hospital and a UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center. As UCF’s vice president for health affairs, she oversees 500 faculty and staff, and more than 2,000 volunteer and affiliated faculty.
The prospect of building something new and significant is the reason I moved to Central Florida in 2006 for what I call “phase three” of my life. In phase one, I embraced my professional development in medicine. In phase two, I raised a family. For my next phase, I wanted an adventure with huge potential. I wanted a life project, one that when I was 90 would allow me to look back on my life and say, “well done.”
On my visit to the Orlando area, I saw the expanse of land at Lake Nona and the vision for a medical city. I imagined what “could be.”
Everything fits together. We have a bold, energetic, young university in a thriving city of optimism. This young community is like a person in their early 20s – grown up enough to run fast and strong and powered by hopes and dreams. A place where all things are possible.
UCF and our College of Medicine are building on what we’ve learned from the very best schools in the country and shaping that knowledge to create something new and better for the century ahead of us. Deborah German, M.D., Founding Dean of UCF’s College of Medicine and Vice President for Health Affairs
That is UCF today. We know how to grow but we haven’t grown all the way up. So many universities are built on centuries-old traditions. UCF and our College of Medicine are building on what we’ve learned from the very best schools in the country and shaping that knowledge to create something new and better for the century ahead of us.
We’ve come a long way as a medical school that just welcomed our 10th M.D. class. We have traveled unfettered by the burdens of history, which inevitably leads to “can’t.” Without that kind of baggage, we can see the future and leap into it with partners who share the same vision. That’s the beauty of being young and equipped with everything necessary to move forward. And that makes it truly exciting to wake up every morning.
