Central to NWA: A UCA Podcast

Ep. 7 - Training Doctors Differently: The Alice Walton Way | With Sharmila Makhija

• University of Central Arkansas • Season 1 • Episode 7

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What does it take to build a medical school that puts humanity back at the center of care? We sit down with Dr. Sharmila Makhija, founding dean and CEO of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, to explore how a bold vision in Bentonville is reshaping medical education and strengthening healthcare across Arkansas and the Heartland. 

Dr. Makhija shares how her Southern roots and family of educators shaped a mission rooted in service, connection, and respect. She walks us through the school’s whole health approach, teaching students to see patients fully and work seamlessly with nurses, therapists, medical assistants, and behavioral health professionals. From day one, students join house-based service teams, partner with local organizations, and learn in a building designed for wellbeing, complete with natural light, public art, and community spaces that invite dialogue.

We dig into what it means to found an institution from scratch: recruiting a mission-first team, weathering unexpected setbacks, and aligning across an ecosystem that includes the Whole Health Institute, Crystal Bridges, and a growing STEM pipeline. With surging applications and a small inaugural class, the school is scaling carefully to maintain quality while building residency opportunities so graduates can stay and serve. Dr. Makhija also paints a practical path for rural impact, virtual support networks, hub-and-spoke collaboration, and an interprofessional workforce equipped to meet real needs in behavioral health, respiratory therapy, and more.

If you care about healthcare access, medical education, and the future of rural medicine, you’ll find hope and hard-won insights here. Listen, subscribe, and leave a review to help more people discover conversations that move Arkansas forward.

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_00

This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. I'm your host, Paul Gatling, and we are bringing the University of Central Arkansas to Northwest Arkansas. Each episode, we will talk with leaders, alumni, and innovators driving this region forward. People who are shaping industries and defining what is next for our state. Let's get started. We are back. Welcome into another edition of Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. I'm your host, Paul Gatling. Appreciate you tuning in with us. And just a quick reminder before we get started about what this podcast is about. It's about leadership, it's about community, and it's about the people who are shaping Northwest Arkansas. So, with that in mind, while this is a UCA branded podcast, we do have alums, but we also have people who are not graduate of the University of Central Arkansas. So, from that perspective, I'm so happy to welcome my guest today, Dr. Sharmilla Makija. She is the chief executive officer and the founding dean of the brand spanking new, aesthetically beautiful Alice L.

Meet Dr. Sharmila Makhija

SPEAKER_00

Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville. That acronym says it all, right? It's awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02

It's awesome. Yes, yes. Well, thank you. It's such a pleasure to be here with you today. You know, I was sharing with you earlier that uh I've told my team whenever Paul calls, we answer right away because you were the first person to interview me. That's right. Uh, before I even moved down here, and I still remember that conversation. It it made me feel welcome and at home. So thank you for inviting me today.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I I share the same sentiments. And like you said, we've known each other uh since you arrived in Northwest Arkansas, what, three years ago?

SPEAKER_02

Three years ago. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00

You'd just been announced as the founding dean of the medical school, and I've enjoyed getting to know you and same here. Watching you and your team build truly something special. So, yeah, thanks for sitting down with me today. So uh, as you said, awesome is building something special here in Northwest Arkansas that um is going to have long-term impact. I mean, not just in Arkansas, but beyond our borders. So when you hear that, when you hear that perspective, what kind of emotions does that bring?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yes. And you and you were at our grand opening in October, and we opened in July, but we had this celebration in October, and you saw that we were all, I think, all just taken aback and overwhelmed when we saw everybody there to support us with our faculty and students there, that it actually happened. And then the impact that's beyond our doors right here in Arkansas because the commitment was very clear from Alice and her vision to help the people of Arkansas, so Northwest Arkansas, but the state of Arkansas and beyond. So we look at rural areas throughout the heartland as being our focus. And I think that in this day and age, when a lot of the attention is on the coastlines, where a lot of the funding goes to, you look at the problems in the heartland, the health care is some of the lowest in the country as far as the ratings are concerned. And so our commitment was to produce and train these types of students that understand whole person care. Yeah. So it's really an amazing opportunity. And to see the impact already that these students are having on the community is really heartwarming. It's really overwhelming at times.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm sure you've got a lot of great success stories and fun stories from the first semester now into the second semester

A Vision For Rural Whole Health

SPEAKER_00

of the school. Yeah, you the ground, the the grand opening day in October, you mentioned it really was uh I remember it was cold.

SPEAKER_02

So very cold and rainy, but it made everybody stay inside, right?

SPEAKER_00

We all got to, and to me, that was like that made it more of a shared experience. Yes because we were in a much closer confine than everybody in you.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

You you said the word, it was really awe-inspiring. And I've used that word aesthetically awesome and beautiful. Yes. And we'll get into the the the curriculum, yes, of course, but just the the beauty of that place. Yes. And if you haven't been, I mean, there's a please come visit. Yeah, there's a public-facing element. There's green space, there's a coffee shop, there's the of course the green roof that everybody has been talking about for years, and we've been reporting about at the Business Journal for years. So that's right. Um, yeah, it's very exciting. And congratulations to you and everyone. To the team, yeah. Yeah, to the team to get this far. So all right. Well, I want to start with just uh a very brief part of uh your overall bio of your career. And if you're listening or watching today, you could find all of this uh in much greater detail online at the medical school uh uh website. So Sharmila is an oncologist by training and is considered an international expert in gynecologic cancer. Before becoming here, before coming here, she was the department chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the women's uh of women's health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which is part of one of New York's uh premier uh academic health systems, Montefiore health system. Uh also held faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Emory University, and the University of Louisville. So your career has taken you all over the country. Right. Right. But um back in our initial interview, which again when I was working at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, um picked up the phone and called her when you were uh uh first announced, and we had a great conversation. And I always remembered you described yourself as a true southerner.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Right? Why is that? Why are you a true southerner?

SPEAKER_02

Well, you know, I was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. My mom still lives there, and um, that's always been my core. So wherever I go to travel, I keep those core values. And I think it really stems from growing up in that area, how our families really just worked in the community. Um, you know, I come from a family of educators, but the southern way of talking to people, being with people, being connected, it's always stay with me. It doesn't matter if I'm in Manhattan or Atlanta or Bettonville. That's still, that connection still is pretty strong. And I think I shared with you when I came to to interview here, um, I immediately felt that same feeling as growing up in Montgomery. And I thought, okay, this is this is almost like coming back home, even though it's not Alabama. It it felt I felt that same connection. So yeah, it's it's in your it's in your system. No matter where you go live, it's always in your system.

SPEAKER_00

So you growing up in Alabama, you mentioned a family of educators a bit more about your mom and your dad. What did they do? Did they have any impact on your oh, fully.

SPEAKER_02

I think they're they are the reason that I'm here. Um, you know, my dad was a college chemistry professor, my mom was is a retired high school biology teacher. Um, so we education was always in our blood. And I think that because of that value

Awe Of Opening And Community Support

SPEAKER_02

on education, I've always gravitated towards working in an academic center that values education, but also how do you work in the community? So it was always very important to my parents that we understand where we're living, how do we ingrain ourselves with the community, but how do we give back? So I think I shared with you at the dinner table, we would, you know, I'm uh the eldest of three kids. Um, and they would charge us at the table with, what did not only what did you learn today, but how did you make someone else's day better? And so we would scramble saying, Oh my God, what are you gonna say? Like, what do we have to say? But then it became like, oh no, we we actually have to do this.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

So, you know, I have to admit, like, we didn't know what that meant, but we would literally just say to someone, well, how can I make your day better? But just even by asking that, change the dynamic of how you connect to somebody. So it's it's always stayed with me. And anytime we're in our leadership meetings or team meetings, that that's part of the theme too, of how do we do this better? How do we make this better for the community? Um, it can't be always about what's just good for us at that moment. So I think their values were very, you know, I was very lucky to have parents that just talked about that, that day and age.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, you probably went from, you know, forcing yourself, what are we going to talk about tonight? to you're probably having to choose from things. That's right. It was just became a part of your part of your life. So that's right. Um what made you decide, you know, your your father, your father and mother were educators and uh in the science part, but what made you decide, physician, you know, the medical field? What what made you decide this is this is the path I want to go to, and this is the path I want to excel in.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. So a lot of our family friends, they were doctors. So I would either go and, you know, go into their offices, see what they did. I was a hospital volunteer, but probably the greatest influence was my grandfather, was a doctor. And then he was in India, and he was a he he was, you know, we would say family doctor, but he was a surgeon. He did primary care. If you had to define it in today's standards, he did everything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And um, and I thought, let me go see you got to see that. I did. I went at the age of nine. I I asked my parents to send me to India to spend the summer in India. And, you know, what what how do you respond to a nine-year-old? And I said, I can go on my own. And um, back then it was Pan Am, and you had a flight attendant that escorted you. And um, I spent the summer with him and I carried his little doctor's bag, and there would be a row of patients waiting to be seen. Their grandkids usually were the ones who could speak English. So I would take take do they do the intake to see how, like what's going on, tell me what's happening. And then I'd go into the into the room.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

And I learned that art of how do you communicate? How do you really understand what's happening with that family, but long term. And um I think I also share with you at one point was a funny story because they would be so

Southern Roots And Service Values

SPEAKER_02

grateful that they'd say, What can we do for you? And I was like, Well, I'm missing apple pie. So one day, I don't know how many people came by with apple pies to the front door. And my grandmother's like, What is happening? And I'm like, Well, I just I told them I like apple pie, but they don't quite know how to make it. My grandmother said, Why would you ask them to do that? I'm like, but they asked me. So I also learned you don't really have you shouldn't really ask for all of those.

SPEAKER_00

Think about that for the next thing.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. That's exactly right. But it was such a great experience that I said, I'm going to do this. I want to be like my grandfather. I want to, it connects with the values that the family our family is saying internally. And I think it's so gratifying to see how you can impact immediately. And then you're seeing that patient over and over, that's the long-term benefit. Um, and that and it brings the community together. If they know they've been taken care of well, they're gonna stay there and they're gonna be connected. And I think full circle here, here we are with Alice's belief that connects very deeply on my same values. And I think that's why we've been able to amplify our visions together.

SPEAKER_00

So, how long did you stay over there in India the first time you went as a?

SPEAKER_02

It was it was like three months or so, yes. And you know, we I did go and do painting and ballet and dance and all that, but I was like, this is great, but I really don't want to do this every day. I can do that home. I want to go out and see what's happening. So three months.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, experience, yeah. You mentioned Alice, um, and we're gonna get into some uh some more discussion about her assert, of course. But when you first came to Northwest Arkansas in 2023, what do you recall that stood out to you? I don't know if you'd ever had any experience of of visiting or spending any time in Arkansas, but just what stood out to you um, not just professionally, but culturally here. I mean, you've deal you said you've lived in a lot of places and you grew up in Alabama, India, and Manhattan and Pittsburgh. And just what do you recall about your initial impressions of this area?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I think literally landing here, right, from the airport, and I had to rent a car, right? So I had to figure out how to get around. And I'm coming out of Manhattan, and I know how to drive, but you know, you have to explore you're used to getting into a taxi or an Uber. And so I had to really look at the map, go back to the old school way, really looking at where I was headed. And it was immediately just connecting, like it was calm. Um, the people were incredibly open and inviting and nice. And I thought that's that's a little bit different from any place I've ever moved to immediately. And they didn't know why I was in town interviewing for. I was just walking around the square and everybody's just friendly. And I thought, this is, you know, this is like a Hallmark movie, you know, like this is real. This is a real place. And um, I remember telling my mom and you know, about that. And when she came to to visit during the grand opening, she's like, I see it now. I see what you see and I feel it the same way. So immediately inviting. And I thought, okay, if we're gonna do a big thing like this of opening a brand new school, you need to be in a community that's that open and inviting. Otherwise, it's already hard enough as it is. And if you're fighting off naysayers, which it's not a bad thing to have people that tell you what can't work, because it keeps it in the back of your mind. But you don't want to be fighting that battle. It's already harder to do that. So if we can collaborate and connect and amplify, it's just gonna be a

Choosing Medicine And Early Mentors

SPEAKER_02

better situation. And so I immediately fell in love with the with the city and the because of the people.

SPEAKER_00

You could see yourself living and working here.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm sure Kaylee Griffith and the tourism folks at the Hallmark movie description that you just laid out there.

SPEAKER_03

So yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00

So at what point did you realize um that this role was about more than just um launching a school, that it could help shape the future of healthcare, like we said, not only in Arkansas but beyond our borders.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. You know, the beautiful thing about working with Alice is she she sees things as a whole picture, right? And many of us work in places that you look at what is the problem that you're faced with fixing. Um but in my world as a department chair, I saw a lot of the issues that a medical student may not have been trained on X, and now they're coming to do residency with us, or a resident that was coming in to work with us, and there were gaps. And then you fast forward that to the delivery of health care. So as a department chair, I was constantly looking at the big picture of how do we look at the delivery all across from education to the actual delivery of care. And we worked on how we develop people in a different way. And so talking to Alice immediately, she saw it the same way, like very similar, maybe different, coming from a different angle, right? Because she's not in the healthcare world. But she also saw that this is not just about educating medical students and producing doctors. We have to look at the bigger picture and we have to look at what even happens before they even get to the point of applying for med school to how do we actually get the care here in the community, but on a different level. And so what I saw was that this was going to be a part of a big picture. And when you have that mindset, you can actually be more creative in looking at solutions because you have to look at it broadly and you have to be very inviting and collaborative, right? Because it's not just about you can't possibly be the only person doing this. You have to get everybody involved. So that connected with me. I've always worked in underserved populations and areas, and that's that's been my thing. So for me, this is a rural issue that we have to address, but on a global scale. And can we create a model that can be replicated? Because again, it might just work here, but we need it to work throughout the state of Arkansas and beyond, right? Into the heartland states and where the rural areas are. So that's when I saw, okay, this is this is one piece, and I'm happy to be a part of this piece, but anything I can help with shaping from experience and bringing in, that that just makes me even happier to see we're really trying to address this on a global scale.

SPEAKER_00

So that is a big um responsibility, Ryan, when you're trying to do something that is uh different in such an institutional way. Yes. Um, did that responsibility hit you all at once, or was it very subtle like what I'm about to do here?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I don't think it hit me fully at once because I also saw that I'm part of a team, right? So when I talk about this, I'm not the one doing all of it, right? We have teams at Heartland, Whole Health Institute. We have those on what we call the ecosystem of Crystal Bridges campus, right? Our museum partners are vital to this. Um, because again, we want to approach it in a different way. But it's as we started talking through, I think it became very clear to all of us. And that's how I recruit, too, that the this is the job that you're applying for, but this is a career and this is a um, you know, a truly a privilege to be able to contribute to a bigger picture, right? So I think it and it depends on your mindset, depends on if you're it's not an easy task, right? So you have to be really clear on what we're working on, the fact that there is a little bit of flexibility involved and adapting and changing course. And, you know, you have to know that you have the right mindset or you want to learn that to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00

So excuse me. Uh you mentioned that uh Alice is not from the healthcare field, uh, but she is from the um, I think the force of nature field. Yes, absolutely. Um that's one of the things I've you can describe her with.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Go back to your initial meeting with her. First time you met her, first conversations you've had to you, what do you recall about that?

SPEAKER_02

Uh her warmth. That, you know, because you you have this picture in your mind, right? You can't help it. You have you come to a picture of what what is this going to be like? Yep. Is it gonna

First Impressions Of Northwest Arkansas

SPEAKER_02

be very intimidating? Is it um her warmth? I mean, we she literally made me a cup of tea, right?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And we southern hospitality. Southern hospitality, and we just sat and talked.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Because one of the things is we had to know that we would be able to talk to each other, right? I mean, forget about qualification. At some point, everybody is qualified once you get through the search.

SPEAKER_00

But can we work together? Can we work together?

SPEAKER_02

Can we disagree and get to a better place? Because it's not about us, it's about what is good for the community and for healthcare in general. And that was pretty immediate from me. And I also remember telling her, it has to work both ways. Like you have to like me, I have to like too. Like, because it if we're both not in sync, somebody's not gonna be happy, right? And and relationships don't work well. I mean, it can be transient if it's, you know, you're not getting along, but you're gonna know that you have to really be able to work out your differences. I can't say we have differences. We, you know, some are embedded things that happen in healthcare that you can't necessarily change unless you really revamp everything. So we just talk it out loud that it's it's not so easy to to fix health care. And that's a big task that she's undertaking. But she's okay with that. Yeah, right. Because she she's committed to it. And for me, that's a difference because I have worked in places where rightfully so, the CEO is mandated by the board to do something, or you you've got a lot of other, they've got a lot of other pressures, including their own job. Um she doesn't have that, right? And for me, I'm also at the stage in my life where I've done everything in The academic world that I thought I would want to do. So I'm also willing to take a risk of okay, maybe it won't work, but we're gonna, it's gonna be a better place by just trying to do it differently.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So that's a good point you made. You've you've uh achieved so much in your academic career. Uh you mentioned at some point everybody is qualified. You know, a lot of people are qualified to do it. Yes. The appeal of working uh with Alice Walton is one thing. How appealing was it to be um the founding dean of a medical school? That doesn't happen very often. How much would that a part of your decision making?

SPEAKER_02

You know, that if you overthink it, would be it's a little scary, right? Because who prepares you for that? And you know, I can go into a department and restructure it, um, but you have a foundation that's already there, and you can try to fix that foundation as much as you can. To start it off, it it was the close to being an entrepreneur, I think, that I'll ever be without being an entrepreneur, right? Because it's it's probably the safest entrepreneurial, you know, job to get into because you know you've got the support to be able to build it. Um, but it's to start and building that team. Um that that was a little daunting.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, I think what's the first thing that you do? What was the first task?

SPEAKER_02

Well, and I learned from, you know, my, yeah, you go to business school, but you never know, like this is not what they teach you. But it's, you know, and

Beyond A School: System Change

SPEAKER_02

I think I shared too with you that when I went to business school, it I thought it was to learn finance and accounting because we were not taught that in med school. But I quickly learned it was more important about organizational behavior. That is what's going to make you or break you. Um, and we don't talk about that too often, but it makes sense. It's about the people. And so, you know, you have to be willing to say the things that people don't want to hear, uh, but you have to do it respectfully. And they still may go around saying it's not done well. But I had to be able to say out loud, okay, guys, we've got to be able to, this is where we need to go. We're gonna have to fix some of the things that have already been worked on, frankly. Um, some like it, some don't, right? But being able to work together and fixing that. And some people stay and some people don't. And so that's never fun. I mean, I don't think anybody will say they enjoy having people leave. Um, but I always think that if it's right for them, it'll be right for us, and as long as it's done respectfully. So I think that was probably the most daunting is to start building that foundation. Um, because there had been a team that was working on, and they worked very hard and they did a great job. But even you have to keep going in phases. You have to keep restructuring and building as you grow. And I think that's hard in academics because sometimes it's just set, and that's the comfort piece. Um, and that's why when we're recruiting, we have to talk about like this is a little different. You're gonna have to be able to stomach, maybe we got to change course, and you gotta be able to be nimble and and and and move. So I think that probably was the hardest part is just building the team and keeping that line of communication going and and being able to say, hey, maybe this is not the right direction. We've got to regroup. Um, because also things change in the world too, that we have to flex to. Um, some things have to be standard of the values and the principles, but you have to have that mindset of continuing to evolve and grow.

SPEAKER_00

So on the flip side of that, um, what has gone uh better than you expected? What has been smoother than you expected in terms of, you know, building the physical building, recruiting the the staff, recruiting the teachers, recruiting the students? What has been smoother aspect of that?

SPEAKER_02

You know what the same part that's hard has been the most rewarding. So that team, um, because you know, you can't do it on your own. It has to be about the team. And I will say the team that we've built are just incredible, incredibly dedicated, mission-focused, recruiting others that think like that. But also they're recruiting people from other places that you wouldn't necessarily think about from undergraduate to teach in the medical school, right? Because we're always so focused on medical schools. I think that the people that we have on the team is the secret sauce. And I think our faculty, our staff I'm just amazed that they want to come and do this with us. You know, they're just great human beings and they are our ambassadors. And so I think that's the greatest satisfaction that I've seen that once we got the right like-minded, you know, mission-focused people, it's just it's just amplified since then. Um I don't know anything's been easy, but it's been uh, as you know, um, you know, what's amazing to me, I have worked, and this is probably a non-academic thing to say, but I've worked at many places where you've had to restructure physical plants, and you know, you just kind of take it for granted, it just gets done and they don't talk to you about it. This team, this construction team and the facilities team that Alice has had working. I have to do a shout out to Scott Eccleson. I mean I mean, unbelievable that they hear us and they work with us and they produce this thing that we we we have this vision and we we joke around that a vision without execution is just a hallucination. They help us execute on creating that building that would be this environment for a beautiful environment for our students, our faculty and staff to work and thrive in. You know, because wellness is very important to us. Are we the best at it? No, we have a lot of work to do, but at least the surroundings are in a different environment. But that that team has been really incredible. And um, even my core leadership team of, you know, our our general counsel, Sharon Bridges, that who would think a lawyer is so violent. She is probably more engaged with our teams than anyone else. She was a former LD nurse that became put herself through law school, right? Um, Amy Winger, who's our VP of finance

Working With Alice Walton

SPEAKER_02

administration that you know well, that was at UAMS. Unbelievable as an administrator and finance person because she listens and she helps the team try to get what they're trying to do, their vision, and getting it executed. So I think it's been really incredibly fun to see that. And look, we I can't say that we get commended because we're we're always trying to do better. We don't do a great, you know, perfect job at it, but we try. I think the mindset is there.

SPEAKER_00

When I say Memorial Day 2024, that wasn't very much fun, was it?

SPEAKER_02

It was not. It was not.

SPEAKER_00

That was the curveball that you weren't anticipating.

SPEAKER_02

Not anticipating. And we were having to turn in a lot of the paperwork for the prelim, you know, before the site visit. That was we were under duress. We were uh some of us were holed up at you know the hotels because we needed electricity and um to get paperwork in, but it was um but that brought us closer together.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, because at the end of the day, you've still got that date August 2025 that's that's hanging there in the air that this is when we are starting.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. And then we moved it up to July. Yeah, right. I mean, so we even decided we didn't want to um disrupt what UAMS was doing, so we moved up the start day, which was and and you know, as you know, we literally moved into the building a week before we started.

SPEAKER_00

So well, one thing that um you know, let's talk a little bit about whole health, and one thing that kind of resonates with me is you know, that that physical, mental, community uh well-being. And so at UCA, our College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, yeah, you know, that's uh, you know, we educate nurses and physical therapists and occupational therapists and and behavioral health and all that stuff. You know, the people who um touch patients before um uh and long after a physician's visit, right? So just give me your perspective on how important that is.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, it's vitally important. And I think most med schools are starting to have to address this, um, but we call it interprofessional education. Um, and we have a team that really looks at how do we expose our students to learning how to work on a team. You know, we talk about teamwork, but we train them in med school to be independent thinkers. And then we say, now you gotta work on a team. Again, it goes to that organizational behavior and showing that it's you don't have to know all the answers. You have a team of folks that are very good in their area and working together collaboratively just makes everything go to another level. And frankly, that's a signal to the patients that you're willing to work with them on this. So it's very important to us. And as you know, we're building out. Um, I'm saying we, but Alice and her family are building out, you know, the Ignite High School, right? To amplify the work they're doing to expose high school kids on not only being a doctor, right? All the healthcare areas from EMT to medical assistance to phlebotomy, and they get certifications on that, and they're out in the world doing this work. I think exposing them to this just gives them a broader sense of what you could do in healthcare. It's not about all about being a doctor or a nurse, right? That you got to have the whole team. You saw in the pandemic that the rate limiting um area was the respiratory therapist, right? And so hospitals could not run without them. They were in demand and they were overworked. Um, that signaled to everyone, look, it takes everyone um to be able to deliver health care. Um, and that's how the, and we can talk about that at some point, about the healthcare campus of we're looking at that whole picture as well of training all of the teams that will need to be trained to deliver healthcare.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, that's one thing that I've learned in this role uh in Arkansas is the state works better when institutions work better and collaborate. You mentioned the Ignite professional studies uh at Bentonville High School, and that kind of leads us into the something you mentioned earlier, the the gaps in education and the gaps in healthcare workforce. So where do universities like um the University of Central Arkansas, where do they play the biggest role in filling those? You know, what what skills do today's healthcare students need that maybe were not emphasized 10 years ago, 20 years ago?

SPEAKER_02

You know, I think bringing it to light that here are all the opportunities to work in a healthcare system and exposing them to that and starting to train from phlebotomists to therapists to behavioral health therapists. I mean, that that's a big demand across the country with mental health being a very important aspect of care that we have so often not addressed. You know, that's what we're teaching in the school is this whole health principles. And if you fast forward those principles, that is what value-based

Founding From Scratch And Team-Building

SPEAKER_02

care is based off of, looking at the whole person. But we're calling it out and teaching it in the med school of not only the physical well-being, um, even social well-being that we've sort of addressed, not great, but we're calling out mental, spiritual, all of those pieces that we haven't actually trained people to learn how to recognize when there's an issue and then how do you address it? I think all of those pieces, because it doesn't have to be, again, the doctor that calls it out, the receptionist that's taking in a patient and notices something to the medical assistant. Um, everybody is a part of the team. And training everybody to recognize and support that builds a community. So I think it's not just University of Central Arkansas that hasn't been doing it, no one's been doing it. And I think that's another part of why the STEM University is also being thought about and built out here. Um, and those students will work on our healthcare campus. Again, they'll be building out all of those pieces to help support the delivery of the care. Um, I think just recognizing it and starting to see how do you develop the programs. And listen, we're we're realistic. Now you can't be everything to everyone, but where are your strengths that you could maybe amplify one or two of those particular areas and start to build out those programs on the campus?

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's it's wild to think that in about three years, Bentonville's strength is going to be not one, but two four-year universities in our city. I mean, who thought there would be a day like that? I mean, she you mentioned the STEM University there at the four Walmart campus. So yeah, this is a four-year medical school, of course, but there's only ever going to be one inaugural class of students. Right. Right. You've got 48 students in your inaugural class. I think you had over 2,000 applications. Yes. Probably going to have a lot more for your second and third classes.

SPEAKER_02

Second class was hitting about 5,000 applications, right? And it's, and you know, we had to close out because of the deadlines. Um, and the the level of interest is just skyrocketed. Because I think everybody's craving this approach, you know, um, and we've been afforded the opportunity to try to create it a little bit in a different way. And, you know, we're also trying to be mindful of how do we replicate this? You know, we've been also talking to several other new medical schools that are starting that maybe one or two years behind us that are asking for advice. And we we feel very strongly that we should share whatever we're learning. We had to learn things and figure it out. I think it only helps the country if we help others see how we're doing it. Doesn't mean we're doing it the best, but we might learn a trick or two from talking to them. But, you know, I think that our students actually have been our biggest ambassadors. They're out recruiting, saying, hey, it's it's not easy, but this is real. Like we are, we're feeling supported and we are really enjoying it. So I think that's a true testament to our faculty that have done this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, and uh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention, of course, one of those ambassadors is the University of Central Arkansas graduate, is one of the inaugural classes. That's exactly right. So we're very proud of that. I hope that uh uh there are others that follow stuff, though. What have you learned about this group? How are how are they um getting along collegially and just knowing the fact that, hey, we're the first class, there's a certain responsibility to that and a certain level of uh excitement to that too.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you know, they're very engaged. And and you know, during their first week of orientation, they are they are selected to be in one of four houses that are named after doctors that have really been um groundbreaking in the country that built their community, but one of their first projects is each house has a community service that they work, you know, for a community um uh team building. That has been their favorite part of starting medical school. And they continue to work with those community um leaders. And I think that's amazing that they are so they're already in the community. So they're actually saying, can you build out residency programs? Because we want to stay. And this is what we want. And that's the next, see, it never ends, right? We're we're working. We're so Alice has jumped in with looking at what does the state need, right? Working with the governor's team. I sit on the expansion board, um, but it takes a team. So I love the fact that they want to stay and they want us to continue to build that out because they want to stay and work with us. Um, you know, and we're partnered with Mercy as our educational partner because they're throughout the heartland, right? So we get to expose the students to one of the 55 hospitals that they have in their system. Again, more exposure, more understanding. But our local partners are so important for the students to work with and they're starting to work with, and they will be, you know, from community clinic to Washington Regional to all the other uh folks that are in the area that we feel will broaden their scope of understanding of how complex healthcare delivery is, but they're gonna gain understanding from each group because they have to deal with a different issue, right? So um they're loving that piece. They're loving that piece.

SPEAKER_00

So with the you know um dramatic increase in interest and applications, do you anticipate? I mean, is your are your classes going to stay in that 50 range of students, even yes?

SPEAKER_02

So until we get full accreditation after the first year class, you know, graduates, um we have a chance to increase the size. So that school is built to accommodate 96 per year, so double. Okay. But we won't go straight away. We will look at the faculty-student ratio. We will um look at what we you don't want to dilute it out too much. So we will probably increase it by a certain percentage. We haven't decided yet. Um, we have some time, but you don't jump straight up to the the the doubling. But the max will ever be is 96 a year, which is still a very intimate, good, small group, I think, because a lot of schools are having to be really large to accommodate the pipeline needs for a school for for producing physicians.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. What what um during this process in the past three years, what has um, I guess what has kept you centered?

Construction, Design, And Wellness

SPEAKER_00

I mean, what have you learned about yourself as far as uh leadership? Uh you you've been in a leadership position before, yes, but nothing quite like this where you're managing a lot going from scratch. What have you learned about yourself?

SPEAKER_02

You know, um you always have to be learning, right? And you have to stay humble to the fact that you don't know everything there is to know, and you have to, you have to listen. I think, I think I've always been a good listener, but I'm really listening on a different level and having very clear. I I try to be very clear. Clarity is always important to me. I I need clarity to help me understand, help someone else understand. Um, and the teams that you build, I don't want them to just be yes, okay, we're gonna do this, whatever you want. I want them to say, what are we missing? You think about it this way. It doesn't mean that we're gonna do exactly what you want. But I, for me, it's a continuous learning process. And I'm trying to help the our all layers of our team understand that I don't expect you to have the answer. Just like you can't expect me to have the answer. I don't know. We're all learning it. Um, you know, they they tell you you got to be pretty straightforward and and show that you know the answers, right? Because it helps people feel calm and uh we're just real about it. Like, I don't know. I really don't know, but let's figure it out. Um, it could be unnerving for other people. I have to be okay with that too. I have to be okay that listen, we're gonna be fine, we're gonna be good, but I don't know all the answers. I say it out loud more.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

I think I I I've learned to say that out loud more. And I don't think I've ever had a problem saying I'm wrong or I didn't do that right. Um, but we always say, like they always say, fail fast, right? Um I'm okay with that. But I as long as I know people are trying to figure it out. If it's because they're just being a little lax about it, which everybody we all go through cycles and we gotta, we gotta up our game because this is too high stakes.

SPEAKER_00

I I bet there weren't too many days when you were feeling lax the last three days over there bringing this uh project alive.

SPEAKER_02

And our teams too. They they were working on overtime. If anything we have to tell them, you gotta go, go home.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Go relax. Go outside on the green roof.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Do you see people? Um, we mentioned them and there's a this is a public facing, you know, um physical address, an institution. It's not just an academic campus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Do you see have you seen a lot of people,

Storm Setbacks And Resilience

SPEAKER_02

you know, just you're you're, you know, we have hours of I think 10 to 5, because we we have to reserve the morning for um the students and for our own meetings. Um, but it's open to the public Monday through Friday. Um and no, they come through. Our front desk team tells us, like, oh, they're asking about this. So the front desk team has had to learn a lot about the school. We're even designing how the um the monitors display what's happening in the school so they feel like they understand. Um, you know, we have artwork that's on the first floor, as you saw, that's part of the curriculum. So our teams at Crystal Bridges, Art Bridges curates it. Um, but they've worked very closely with our curriculum uh leadership team. And I think it's fun for everybody to see what the students are learning in real time. Um, and so I, you know, as you met my mom, my mom is like, This is not what I thought a medical school looks like. Neither for me, mom. And you know what's amazing is we have so many windows. Like when I was in in class, we were in this dungeon, you know, lecture hall. We don't have lecture hall. We have to we actually use the lobby as our we need a really bigger space. Otherwise, we're just in intimate spaces, a lot of windows. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. The tour that we went on uh with you and and uh Yogi walking us through, it is not all have a big bench line of medical schools to compare it to, but uh I could see it in in your eyes and your description, and everyone is saying yeah, this is not um that's right normal in the world of medical school academia, some of the the amenities that the students have and the spaces that they think from like classroom to hang out to study to movies and everything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean their student lounge. I if I were them, I'd be living there today.

SPEAKER_00

It is an incredible space.

SPEAKER_02

It is, it is, and

Interprofessional Education And Ignite

SPEAKER_02

I think that just shows the commitment to supporting well-being and um you know, we have a little gym, we have all of that. If you can't relax there, I don't know where else you can relax while you're under duress with uh all the studying, right?

SPEAKER_00

So well, yeah, there there's a like you meant there's a general curiosity about the place and about the school and about uh the green roof and all that that entails. So and also I think that ties into just there's a general curiosity about uh everything that is happening in in Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas. So when you when you put your hat on and you you think maybe 10 or 20 years down the road, um, how do you hope people will be talking about uh awesome's impact on health care in Arkansas?

SPEAKER_02

Yes. You know, I what we our dream that we hope to see come to fruition, which I think we're on the right track with just looking at the caliber and type of students that we have, our faculty, is we want to show an impact on how they care for their communities. So we would love to see that they're here working throughout the state, throughout the Heartland region, delivering care to those that need it the most. And um, if we can help train them working with also our partners at Mercy, with how do you add in the, you know, the virtual networks to help support? Because it's you know, it's one thing to have patient access issues, but it's also the support system you need for the docs, the nurses, the teams that are in rural areas that if it's just one of you there, how do you survive? Because just putting a second one doesn't work, but how do you reconnect back to the central hub and how do we support them in delivering that care? Because I think that's the power of academic centers is you've got teams and you've got a support network. And then when you just go 10 miles out, there's nobody. Um, and we want to connect back and share the resources that we have. So we want that built into the mindset that you always have to be looking at how are you providing the best care. And if you don't know what to do, you call, you connect back, you either send the patients or we help you take care of them there. So that's the ultimate goal is we want it, we want it shared out throughout, and we want that mentality to emanate throughout the country that you got to share. Yeah, it's not about you saying you're the best at this, you're connecting, you're just reconnecting and helping to support.

SPEAKER_00

Now, do you still have the mentality of um the um the uh instructor? Are you instructing at all in the classroom or have you graduated to the to the C-suite forever?

SPEAKER_02

No, no, no, you have to come back to the core. I mean, I have my privileges at some of the hospital to practice. There's there's the my problem in my specialty is there's not a lot of G1 oncologists. And so it's hard for me to do that level of surgery and not have a team to help take care of that patient. Otherwise, that's my full-time job. Um I I think that you know, it it's it's it's always going to be a challenge of how do we share our knowledge. And I think it's important as as we get older, I'll say me, you know, how do we share that knowledge back? I I have taught in the taught is a loose where we we uh the uh the dean of the business school, Brent, and I did a leadership class um during our health system science track. So in Yogi has taught policy. Um Claude is is Pertle at the Whole Health Institute, has also helped to teach in that class. He was the thread leader. Um he's so busy that we had to get some more people to help do it. But we're trying to teach real-time learnings of how it is to actually practice. Um, so my role was at least they requested something about leadership. So that's what we talked about. That even in business or healthcare, it's the same principles. And look at how we're working together to try to figure out how to do this better. And so that was we did a little lecture series, and then Alice came and joined us as well. So they saw like how how are we all communicating about leadership? Yep. Um, so that was the piece that we taught. Um, but you know, even our accrediting um, our accreditation lead, she teaches in the anatomy lab. So we're trying to show that we all have different facets to our background and how do we share that knowledge?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, I can uh put this on your plate that there's a four-year institution in Conway, about two and a half hours away, that would absolutely love to uh benefit from your uh insight on leadership in business and healthcare. And so if there's any way we can make that happen, we would we would sure love to do that too.

SPEAKER_02

And we're happy to visit campus in Conway.

SPEAKER_00

That would be a good thing. We'd love that.

SPEAKER_02

We'd love that.

SPEAKER_00

If you're imparting knowledge then, yeah, you know, to let's say um, you know, prospective students, a student in Arkansas today who is considering um, you know, maybe somebody at UCA thinking about healthcare, thinking about going in that path. Yes. What would you want them to know about that path ahead?

SPEAKER_02

You know that it's it's one of the greatest privileges to work in that field

Filling Workforce Gaps Statewide

SPEAKER_02

because uh to be able to care for somebody else to help them through a a difficult situation, I think is is the greatest privilege. Um and it's it's one that we take very seriously. You know, we sometimes we're told we're a little too serious acting at the school. I'm like, well, it's serious business. You know, we still have fun, but it's serious. So it is very rewarding. As much as the pandemic revealed some of the problems, um we've looked at that to see how do we bring humanity back into medicine. It seems like it should be a given, but I think there's been a disconnect. Um, I'm here to say that we're committed to bringing humanity back in because I think that's that's not a soft skill. That is a vital, essential skill on how you work with each other, how do you care for each other? I think the specialty of healthcare is so rewarding. Um, that just to keep in mind it's hard. Anything worth anything takes effort and is hard sometimes, but it's so worth it. I think to have a career in this area is incredibly rewarding. And I have to remind myself on those tough days, um, but it's not hard. It's not hard to. And I think we're nobody's ever fully happy with anything they're doing, right? You're always gonna, but it's okay to gripe about, get it out of your system and keep going. But look at the big picture. I think it's just uh it's a it's a beautiful area to be in.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it sounds as though uh despite those um perceived, the perceived disconnect and the perceived challenges, you have a high optimism about the future of healthcare in this region.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely, absolutely. And I think, listen, I mean, if we still walked away from Betonville um across the country, you know, I'm we're getting asked to be on panels and talk about it. People are curious how we're creating this ecosystem that Alice is building out with her vision, with her team from from Ruben, who who leads her foundation. I mean, we work all together. Um, they're asking, like, how how do you how are you doing this? And how can we help be a part of that? Um, and how do we take that back and build it out? So I think it's a really exciting time to be here. And I think just in my three years, I've seen the growth. Right. It's been incredible. And I think it's just gonna, I think it's gonna explode even more.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Sharmilla, thank you for your leadership. And again, thanks for coming to visit with us today and uh for choosing to invest your time and your energy in Arkansas. But that's because you're a true southerner.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate you. And uh and uh please come visit at you know, anybody on the campus that wants to come.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I would and I would tell anybody uh in Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas if you've not been by the campus on Northeast J Street, don't be intimidated by the you know, there's a lot of construction going on across the street, which housing housing for future students, right? That's going on right now. So yeah, yeah. Get out on the campus, walk on the green space and the trails, have a cup of coffee. It's uh it's a beautiful place. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00

All right, well, thanks very much for visiting about all things uh awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00

All right, that's it for this edition of Central to NWA. Appreciate you tuning in. Until next time, go Bears. That's it for this episode of Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. I'm Paul Gatling, Senior Director of Northwest Arkansas Engagement for the University of Central Arkansas. Be sure to subscribe to the show and follow UCA on all the appropriate social media. I'll see you next time on Central to NWA.