Walton College of Drugs in Bentonville proclaims founding dean, CEO

The Alice L. Walton College of Drugs (AWSOM) introduced Monday (Feb. 13) the hiring of Dr. Sharmila Makhija as its founding dean and CEO. Makhija will start the job in Might 2023.

First introduced in March 2021, the medical college is a standalone sister group of Bentonville nonprofit Entire Well being Institute, created in 2020 by Walmart Inc. heiress and philanthropist Alice Walton.

“We’re excited to welcome Dr. Makhija to the AWSOM staff and to the area,” Walton mentioned in a press release. “Her background and dedication to medical schooling will advance our work in equipping physicians to sort out challenges of the twenty first century by specializing in the bodily, psychological, social, and emotional well being of the folks and communities we serve.”

In response to the discharge, Makhija’s experience makes use of a collaborative strategy throughout the healthcare supply system. She is a surgeon and girls’s well being professional, most lately working as division chair of obstetrics and gynecology and girls’s well being, professor of gynecologic oncology, and the Chella and Moise Safra Endowed Chair at Albert Einstein Faculty of Drugs and Montefiore Well being System in Bronx, N.Y.

“Sharmila has a formidable profession that spans educational, scientific, and enterprise settings — and super success in inspiring groups and communities,” mentioned Walter Harris, president of healthcare transformation for Artwork and Wellness Enterprises (AWE), a providers group supporting nonprofits based by Alice Walton, together with AWSOM and Entire Well being Institute. “Her management and fervour will promote the imaginative and prescient to rework medical schooling and care, beginning with creating a brand new pipeline of physicians.”

AWSOM is being constructed on roughly 20 acres east of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Artwork alongside Northeast J Avenue, north of First Presbyterian Church.

Development of the 154,000-square-foot constructing will begin this spring. Polk Stanley Wilcox is the lead architect for the mission. Crossland Development is the final contractor.

“The chance to construct a medical college from the bottom up, with the imaginative and prescient of philanthropist, Alice Walton, is a dream come true,” Makhija mentioned in a information launch. “Healthcare supply is fractured and in want of transformation so that each one Individuals can have entry to the respectful care they deserve. Coaching the docs of the long run, inside a tradition of variety and inclusivity, is central to that transformation. Our objective is to construct a brand new medical college and be a frontrunner in enhancing well being and wellness. I can’t wait to fulfill the great neighborhood of Northwest Arkansas and get began!”

Makhija earned her B.A. in chemistry from Cornell College, her medical diploma from the College of Alabama at Birmingham and accomplished her obstetrics and gynecology residency on the College of Louisville Hospital and a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Most cancers Middle in New York.

She obtained her govt MBA from Emory’s Goizueta Enterprise College. She has held college positions on the College of Pittsburgh and the College of Alabama at Birmingham, the place she continued as a WRHR scholar, tenured affiliate professor and obtained the medical schooling award and the Argus Educating Award from the medical college.

At Emory College, she was division chief of gynecologic oncology, a Georgia Most cancers Coalition Distinguished Most cancers Scholar, and the Leach Endowed Chair in obstetrics and gynecology. She served as division chair of obstetrics, gynecology and girls’s well being, tenured professor of gynecologic oncology, and the Donald E. Baxter Endowed Chair in obstetrics and gynecology on the College of Louisville College of Drugs.

Whereas on the College of Louisville, she was the chief medical and operations officer for the Middle for Ladies’s and Infants and an teacher for the course “Economics of Well being Sector Administration” on the UofL Faculty of Enterprise, govt MBA program.

She presently serves on the board of Each Mom Counts, a nonprofit based by Christy Turlington Burns centered on enhancing maternal well being care worldwide; the Scientific Management Committee of the American Hospital Affiliation; and as deputy editor of JAAPI, a peer-reviewed medical and healthcare journal of the American Affiliation of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI).

Makhija has obtained quite a few awards for her dedication to girls’s well being, together with the Spirit of Achievement Award on the Albert Einstein Faculty of Drugs and Humanitarian Hero, Good Housekeeping.

A world professional on gynecologic most cancers, Makhija’s hiring is notable as a result of, in line with the latest knowledge accessible from the Affiliation of American Medical Schools, girls account for 16% of medical college deans.

Pending accreditation, AWSOM will welcome its firstclass of scholars in 2025.