Announcement Regarding Anne Taylor

Dear Colleagues,

I write to share with you that after 17 years of transformative contributions to faculty support and advancement throughout our medical center, Dr. Anne Taylor has notified me of her decision to retire from the faculty and her positions as vice dean of academic affairs at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior vice president for faculty affairs and career development at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her retirement will be effective June 30, 2025.

Anne’s visionary initiatives have had a profound impact on the careers and professional well-being of all our faculty members. When Anne arrived at Columbia in November 2007, as vice dean of academic affairs, the faculty support unit was comprised of the Office of Faculty Affairs and the International Students and Scholars Office. Under Anne’s leadership, what is today the Office of Academic Affairs was developed to support faculty and researchers across CUIMC’s four health science schools. Three additional units were created: the CUIMC Office of Faculty Professional Development, Diversity, and Inclusion; the CUIMC Office of Professionalism; and the Office of Conflict of Interest on Education, Clinical Care, and Administration.

The CUIMC Office of Faculty Professional Development, Diversity, and Inclusion developed a unique framework to identify specific domains of faculty life that determine faculty satisfaction, vitality, and success and that advance professional development around these determinants. The Office has always sought collaboration, advice, and feedback from faculty to craft supportive programs. This framework allowed the Office to consider and respond to the needs of all faculty members, and those of faculty subgroups defined by academic pathways, academic rank, identity groups, and specialties. In 2012, she and a faculty committee composed of members from the four schools worked to restructure the academic tracks framework to recognize the value of all faculty work and to provide clear pathways for faculty advancement, including reorganization of the Committee on Appointments and Promotions (COAP) to reflect the heterogeneity of faculty work and faculty demographics. The Office worked with departments to enhance mentoring; increase the availability of services for work-life integration; and celebrate the achievements of faculty accomplishments. This approach ensured that faculty could be recognized for the importance of their work as educators, clinicians, and researchers. With consideration of all the forms of support that faculty need to lead satisfying careers, she has been a fierce champion of mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for faculty, including working with the Office of the Provost to create a best practice guide for faculty mentoring used across the University.

During her time at Columbia, Dr. Taylor has led a transformation of the institution’s approach to faculty diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2012, she led a faculty committee that created the Virginia Kneeland Frantz Society for Women Faculty to recognize CUIMC’s commitment to the career advancement of women faculty. VP&S has earned national recognition for contributions to gender equity in medicine. Under her leadership, the Office of Academic Affairs was awarded a 2020 NIH Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity in Biomedical and Behavioral Science and a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, in concert with the American Heart Association, to support early career physician scientist faculty burdened with excess caregiving responsibilities. Anne received the 2021 Group on Women in Medicine and Science Leadership Award for an Individual from the Association of American Medical Colleges in recognition of her contributions in advancing women in academic medicine and science at VP&S. In 2020, with her colleagues Drs. Olajide Williams and Rafael Lantigua, she coordinated a 100+ person CUIMC-wide committee that created a roadmap to address structural racism in health and healthcare.

A proud member of the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine, Anne served every week from 2008 to 2022 as the attending cardiologist in the Thursday morning AIM clinic. Welcoming former trainees as new colleagues in the division has been a special pleasure for her.

I will begin the search process to identify Anne’s successor over the next several weeks and would like to thank Lisa Kachnic, Gerard Karsenty, Eugenia Lean, Monica Lypson, James McKiernan, Rudi Odeh-Ramadan, Rebecca Schnall, Michael Sparer, and Sunil Wadhwa for joining me on the search committee.

Dr. Taylor’s innumerable contributions will leave a meaningful legacy among our faculty and community. We will have opportunities to celebrate Anne’s accomplishments over the next year and please join me in thanking Dr. Taylor for her extraordinary service to Columbia University.

All my best,

Katrina Armstrong, MD
Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences, Columbia University