“Leadership is a mirror in which people see their collective reflection,” writes author Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book Leadership: In Turbulent Times. Hence the aptness of the cover of this year’s Dean’s Report depicting Gordon Hall’s veined marble veneer as a reflection of the people of HMS. My primary responsibility as dean is to ensure that everyone has the resources to reach their full potential. I am motivated to mirror your stories, your values, your aspirations, and your idealism to illuminate and guide both individual and collaborative enterprise toward the improvement of health and well-being for all.

Members of our community also lead from their own unique vantage point, informed by their own lived experiences. For our students, leadership training is indispensable — rapid advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, health tech, and precision medicine techniques require physicians of the future to navigate high degrees of uncertainty, engage with new models of care delivery, and become restless bioethical adjudicators. Our faculty, too, lead through their relentless commitment to innovative research and teaching, collaborations that extend the impact of basic science insights into the clinic, and educational initiatives that embed health equity into the curriculum. Our postdocs and trainees lead by asking incisive research questions, mentoring students, and building bridges between communities. And our staff and administrators play a critical role in recruiting and retaining talent, fostering an environment of inclusion and belonging, and facilitating productivity. No matter the angle of reflection, each of us at HMS is our own mirror, projecting a sharp, comprehensive vision of quality health care for all.

Banner image: Researchers in neurobiology Chelsea Mapp (left) and Jen Ding use a two-photon microscope to help determine how spatial memories are represented in the mouse hippocampus during navigation. Photo credit: Gretchen Ertl