09-12-2021 Hall of Fame - Flipbook - Page 48
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Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, September 12, 2021
BALTIMORE SUN’S 2021
BUSINESS AND CIVIC HALL OF FAME HONOREE
JAY A.
PERMAN
T
here are at least three things immediately apparent
about the chancellor of the University System of Maryland. First, Jay A. Perman might be the most modest
and genuine person you will ever meet in a leadership
post in higher academics. Second, he listens intently,
patiently and openly, as if what you have to tell him is
the most important thing in the world.
And finally, there’s more than a trace of a Chicago
accent when he speaks. All three of these qualities can be traced to his childhood
in the Windy City, where he was raised under modest circumstances, developed
his nearly lifelong interest in becoming a physician and learned the value of an
education that would surely have proven unattainable had a full-ride scholarship
to medical school not been offered to him.
“When something like that
happens to you, when you get a
medical education for free, it sort
of steers how you are going to live
your life,” Dr. Perman says. “It
imbues you with a sense of obligation.”
Higher education has never been
for the faint of heart. Juggling the
needs of Maryland’s schools from
Salisbury to Frostburg, along with
the personalities that go along
with their leadership, makes for a
demanding job.
Yet you would be hard-pressed
to find anyone within the system
who does not marvel at the skills
the chancellor has displayed
during his nearly two years in
office.
Whether it’s finding a way to
better align the Baltimore-based
professional schools through a
strategic partnership with the
state’s flagship school in College
Park or supporting Historically
Black Colleges and Universities in their efforts to overcome
discriminatory practices of the
past, Dr. Perman consistently gets
high marks from those who work
closely with him.
Few could have predicted such a
path for the only child of Ukrainian
immigrants fleeing persecution,
BACKGROUND
Age: 75
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Current residence: Baltimore City
Education: B.A. in psychology,
Northwestern; M.D., Northwestern;
residency, Northwestern; fellow in
pediatric gastroenterology, Harvard
Career highlights: Professor of pediatrics, University of Calif.; professor of
pediatrics, Johns Hopkins; Jessie Ball
duPont Professor, Chair of Pediatrics
at Virginia Commonwealth University; chair of pediatrics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore; dean of
the University of Kentucky College of
Medicine; president of UMB
Civic and charitable activities:
Board member: Association of
American Colleges and Universities,
Association of Public Land-Grant
Universities, Southern Regional
Education Board, National Association of System Heads, Association
of Governing Boards’Council of
Presidents, University of Maryland
Medical System, Greater Baltimore
Committee, Economic Alliance of
Greater Baltimore, Baltimore’s Promise, Maryland Business Roundtable
for Education; chair, Maryland Life
Sciences Advisory Board
Family: Wife, Andrea; four children;
nine grandchildren.
who eked out a living running a
hand laundry.
His father, a two-pack-a-day
smoker, died of esophageal cancer
when Jay was just 14. His mother
was forced to sell the laundry and
found work as a seamstress. Still,
he dreamed of becoming a doctor,
and acceptance to Northwestern University’s Class of 1968,
with financial aid and work study,
followed by medical school made
his wish come true.
He chose to become a pediatrician and then traveled to Boston to
enter what was then a brand-new
specialty: pediatric gastroenterology. Soon, he was deeply involved
in teaching, research and taking
care of patients.
One thing lead to another as
he became a department head
and administrator with stints in
San Francisco, at Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine and as dean at
the University of Kentucky College
of Medicine before his appointment in 2010 as president of the
University of Maryland, Baltimore.
And here’s the most Jay Perman
thing about Jay Perman: He still
conducts weekly Tuesday afternoon “President’s Clinics” at UMB,
seeing pediatric patients from the
University of Maryland Medical
Center with a dozen students and
faculty in tow (by Zoom during the
pandemic).
How many of the nation’s leading higher education administrators care for patients or even
help foster an interdisciplinary
approach to treatment, as he’s
apt to be joined not just by aspiring doctors but lawyers, dentists,
physical therapists and others too?
But that underscores another
quality the helps define the
doctor: He cares not just about
student success or about nurturing research or even about how
top-flight educational institutions can help Maryland prosper
economically, but also about reaching out to the communities immediately adjacent to the colleges.
At UMB, he was “always looking
for opportunities for the university
to bring something to the community,” recalls Nancy Grasmick,
the former state superintendent
of schools who says Dr. Perman’s
frequent outreach to city schools
included dispatching a van to help
“When something
like that happens to
you, when you get a
medical education
for free, it sort of
steers how you are
going to live your life.
It imbues you with a
sense of obligation.”
— Jay A. Perman, chancellor of the
University System of Maryland
provide needed medical care to
students with asthma who were
missing class.
“I rejoiced when he came back
to Maryland. Having him as chancellor has been a dream come true.”
Patricia S. Florestano, a former
Maryland higher education secretary, lists one other quality vital to
Dr. Perman’s success: great political instincts.
It’s a critical skill to get so
many four-year schools working
together, to provide oversight and
guidance without interfering with
their day-to-day operations, and to
satisfy the demands of the system’s
Board of Regents and state government, which plays a significant
funding role.
And then, when one of the most
challenging moments arrives in the
form of the COVID-19 pandemic,
who was in the middle of how
campuses dealt with a public
health crisis?
A full-fledged physician. That
turned out to be a pretty useful
background, too. His experience
as a researcher, administrator and
advocate are also likely to prove
helpful as higher education moves
forward toward a still-evolving
hybrid model of on-campus and
off-campus instruction and the
financial implications that come
with it.
“He’s a very smart and kind
and decent man and that makes a
difference,” Ms. Florestano says.