The Senior Academy supports the faculty’s transition to retirement

For 52 years, Dr. Sarah S. Donaldson deeply loved her work in Stanford Medicine‘s Department of Radiation Oncology. She reveled in academic medicine and took immense pride in seeing her pediatric cancer patients go on to live full lives. The opportunities to advance the field of cancer care, expand the hospital’s pediatric services, and mentor her talented young colleagues made her faculty role the most gratifying work of her life.

All of this made the decision to retire feel like she was giving up what she loved most. “It was like I had amputated my right arm,” said Catharine and Howard Avery Professor Emerita. “I had become possessive of what I had because I loved it. It was the reason I got out of bed every morning and I resisted retiring.”

But when she knew she would be leaving her beloved position at the top of her game, she began to think about how to reinvent herself. There is a lot of support for navigating the earlier stages of life, Donaldson points out, but less for helping people thrive after a full and rewarding career. “The transition to retirement takes a lot of planning,” Donaldson said. “It’s the next part of your life’s journey. You have to plan for it like you plan for everything important in your life, and those who don’t have more problems than people who do.”

Donaldson became a retired coach in Stanford Medicine’s New Beginnings Programsigned up for training programs and joined Stanford Emeriti/ae Councilbook clubs and a walking group. She also became a board member of a non-profit theater company, a chance to delve into the humanities after a career dominated by the sciences.

“I was worried that somehow I was going to get my retirement all that time, but that hasn’t been the case,” Donaldson said. “I do a lot of things that I enjoy and I take time for myself, which I never used to do. You have to actively increase your circle so that you get more and more stimulation, because otherwise it will wither away.”

Iris Litt, chair of the Emeriti/ae Council and associate dean of senior and emeriti/ae faculty at SoM, said the senior academy can help create a community for people who are considering retirement. | LA Cicero

Unexploited resource

In the fall, the School of Medicine (SoM) and its Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) launched Senior Academy at Stanford Medicine to support senior and retired School of Medicine faculty like Donaldson as they embark on their new phase of life and to help them continue to contribute to the university community.

“It provides opportunities for retired faculty to share their own experiences and new ventures with one another, thereby exposing us all to the wonder of this time in our lives,” said Iris Littchair of the Emeriti/ae Council, and associate dean of senior and emeriti/ae faculty at SoM, a position created in 2022. “We can learn from each other, from these conversations, and unknown resources can emerge, not to mention the support we naturally feel when we share similar experiences.”

The Academy is part of the New Beginnings Program, which OAA created to meet the needs of senior faculty transitioning to their next life chapter, and retired and emeriti faculty.

The Academy connects retired SoM faculty with opportunities for continued learning, teaching, mentoring and service. It also helps retired faculty maintain their social and professional connections within the university. Retired faculty are an “untapped resource” that can serve as role models and provide retirement advice to senior faculty and offer valuable mentoring and networking opportunities to faculty, interns and students, Litt said.

Frank M. LongoThe George E. and Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine and Professor of Neurosurgery is a member of the Academy’s Advisory Board, which is composed of 16 active and retired faculty who advise on the development of programs and policies after retirement.

“An important role for this program is to help people understand the many pathways, which are more complex than I realized, and what might be best for them,” Longo said. “There is so much energy, expertise, wisdom and experience out there among the faculty who have made this transition.

“Especially for Stanford, being in Silicon Valley, the faculty is in an innovative, stimulating environment with involvement in various entities,” he continued. “It’s great for the university, and obviously it’s good for faculty members to have that continued connection.”

The Senior Academy collaborates with university organizations such as Continuing Studies and has several committees that develop opportunities based on people’s diverse interests. The academy collaborated with Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI) this summer to offer a special speaker series as an opportunity to build community with DCI Fellows, retired faculty and others.

The Senior Academy at Stanford Medicine held a speaker series with the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute this summer. | Jayne Onyiohi Abraham

‘Long Overdue’

The launch of the senior academy represents a growing understanding of the professorship’s needs, which have changed dramatically since the university’s founding, when lifespans were far shorter, Litt said. Litt was inspired by work at some peer institutions to design the academy and incorporate survey data from Stanford’s senior and emeriti faculty. The senior academy also serves as a model that other Stanford schools can replicate, Litt said.

SoM faculty spend significant time heavily focused on clinical care, research and teaching, and the sudden loss of these activities in retirement can be disruptive, said SoM Vice Dean Linda Boxer.

Studies conducted at SoM and across Stanford in recent years show that retired faculty greatly crave continued connection and intellectual engagement with the university. The study also found that faculty nearing the end of their careers may refrain from discussing retirement with colleagues for fear of being excluded from future activities.

“Many of our senior faculty members do not know when or how to think about retirement, and we were surprised to see in our survey that many of them had no one to talk to about retirement,” said Boxer, who added that the launch of the academy is “long overdue”.

“Many of our retired faculty have much to offer, and there is often no mechanism for their continued engagement in the Stanford community,” she said. “We want to change the culture and environment so that faculty members can start thinking about retirement and their ‘next opportunity’ early in their careers.”