The 2016/2017 Applied Strategic Plan – A Commitment to Excellence

ImageOver the course of three days, from December 14 – December 16, 2016, members of the Applied Strategic Planning Committee gathered at the Questrom School of Business to launch the process of refreshing the 2011 Applied Strategic Plan (ASP) for the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM).

The applied strategic planning efforts are being led by ASP Committee Co-chairs Drs. Celeste Kong and John Guarente (GSDM); the Academy for Academic Leadership (AAL) will support the ASPC throughout the planning process and are being led by Dr. Tobias Rodriguez and Dr. Mary Coussons-Read.

While the ASP will be a new document with a new perspective for 2017 and beyond, it will follow the existing plan’s vision, mission, and hierarchy in that the goals are the highest and broadest area of planning; objectives define how to achieve the goals, and integrated action plans define and measure the respective objectives. The expectation is that the ASPC will objectively assess the current plan, and create a reinvigorated version of the plan (i.e., goals and objectives) by June 2017. Part of the ASPC’s work will be to identify a limited number of specific, measurable action steps that will achieve the defined objectives in a timely and visible fashion.

With excitement and enthusiasm, on Wednesday, December 14, Dean Jeffrey W. Hutter hosted a reception and dinner for Drs. Rodriguez and Coussons-Read and the members of the Applied Strategic Planning Committee at the Algonquin Club of Boston. Throughout the evening, members of the committee were able to mingle and enjoy an excellent dinner before they got to work the next day. Before dinner, following the introduction of each member of the Committee, Dean Hutter explained the charge to the committee, Drs. Kong and Guarente provided encouraging remarks, while Drs. Rodriguez and Coussons-Read provided a review of the ASP process.

commiteeThe Committee then spent the better part of two days brainstorming and identifying and drafting strategic goals for GSDM. They also discussed protocol and structure, a communication plan, and a timeline for the committee to use moving forward. The next step in the process will involve conducting focus groups within GSDM in February 2017, to further community involvement in developing the new ASP. In addition, they will be conducting executive thought-leader interviews with internal and external partners, as well as online surveys among various constituencies to quantify results. The full committee will meet again in early March.

The members of the Applied Strategic Planning Committee are: Dean Jeffrey Hutter, Dr. John Guarente (Co-chair), Dr. Celeste Kong (Co-Chair), Dr. Alexander Bendayan, Dr. Louis Brown, Dr. Joseph Calabrese, Dr. Sami Chogle, Dr. Mary Coussons-Read, Dr. Serge Dibart, Dr. Richard D’Innocenzo Ms. Grace Elson, Dr. Margaret Errante, Dr. Neal Fleisher, Ms. Patrice Freeman-Lau, Mr. Gurjinder Gill, Dr. Russell Giordano, Dr. Michelle Henshaw, Dr. Hiroshi Hirayama, Mr. Kevin Holland, Dr. Maria Kukuruzinska, Dr. Cataldo Leone, Mr. Tim McDonough, Ms. Stacey McNamee, Dr. Hashem Nouh, Dr. Janet Peters, Mr. John Reilly, Dr. Tobias Rodriguez, Dr. David Russell, Ms. Catherine Sarkis, Mr. Jon Synnott , Dr. Leslie Will, Dr. Athanasios Zavras, and Dr. Matthew Zweig.