It has become an annual tradition for our journal to publish the remarks shared by the annual winner of the Joseph St. Geme, Jr., Leadership Award, an award selected by all seven of the academic organizations in the Federation of Pediatric Organizations, given annually to someone who exemplifies the highest standards in academic pediatric leadership.
The winner is announced at the start of the annual Pediatric Academic Society meeting, and the 2018 winner was Dr. Mark Schuster, MD, PhD, and Dean of the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine in Pasadena, California. Dr. Schuster’s acceptance speech (10.1542/peds.2018-2957) when he received this award last May focused on the importance of mentorship in a most eloquent and elegant manner. While humbly noting his own mentors, Dr. Schuster, an outstanding mentor himself, introduces 6 attributes of what one should look for in a mentor and then four action items as to how to insure mentorship is a part of all that we do in academic medicine. The attributes and action items are all valuable pearls to incorporate into our own lives whether we feel like we are still mentees or experienced mentors, but when Dr. Schuster adds in an underlying series of examples from the Star Wars films, this year’s St. Geme address is one of the most entertaining and yet insightful addresses we have published. Each of the St. Geme addresses that we have published over the years are well worth your time and attention if you are interested in being a pediatric leader or mentor in the community in which you work—making these articles relevant to all of us. Congratulations Dr. Schuster—and thanks for sharing your remarks on mentorship with our readership!
