Dr. KMarie King ’94 Reflects on First Year in Historical Role

She’s the first Black woman to become chair of surgery at a U.S. academic health sciences center

A year ago, Dr. KMarie King made history as the first Black woman to become chair of surgery at a U.S. academic health sciences center.

When asked how the first year at the helm of Albany Medical Health System went, the 1994 St. Joseph’s University, New York graduate laughed and simply said “Busy.”

“I wanted to focus on building the relationships I needed for success and meeting the important stakeholders in the medical school and hospital,” she said. “You need those relationships to be strong to get things done.”

Dr. King focused on establishing infrastructure to help advance the clinical enterprise and the areas of quality and research. She also looked to develop leaders on her staff.

Dr. King is working on creating active dashboards, helping her watch the activity of the organization, concentrating deeply on fiscal performance and patient access.

“We are pushing our faculty hard because of workforce shortages and this has put a demand on our trainees and faculty,” she said. “They don’t complain, but I know
they’re burdened.

“Wellness is important in healthcare, and we need to make sure we have the support systems in place for our faculty to be well; we are creating programs for that,”
she added.

Innovation in the clinical space is also paramount, she said.

“I’m looking to double-down on system integration for surgery and how we work across the system — physician integration and consistency of care — so that patients can expect the same level of care at each of our hospitals,” Dr. King said.

Reflecting back on her days at St. Joseph’s University as a biology student, Dr. King remembers that her eyes were mainly on medicine. But now she sees her inclination has shifted toward the business end of medicine.

“I love operations and process improvement. As a new faculty and as a resident, I was involved in a lot of process improvement, and I think that’s what led me naturally to administration,” she said.

Dr. King credits her experience at St. Joseph’s for continuing to influence her professional journey. She chose the University for its smaller class sizes and an engaged faculty who were highly interested in her development.

“I want to provide that same support, development and growth,” she said of her time at St. Joseph’s. “One of my biggest takeaways from my experience at St. Joseph’s is creating an environment where young people can flourish and see their future in an unrestricted way.”