Jack
Gladstein, MD
Associate Dean for Student Affairs
Giving Back and Receiving Lots in Return
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In the Jewish tradition,
“giving back” is an important part of life. Indeed, giving back
in order to later receive God’s blessing is mentioned in several passages
in the Bible.
Jack Gladstein, MD, associate dean for student affairs, has spent his life
giving back—to his family, his community, his students, and to society,
in general. The success of many of the University of Maryland School of Medicine
alumni of the last decade is due, in large part, to Gladstein.
As associate dean for student affairs, Gladstein is responsible for providing
guidance and advice to medical students in all aspects of student life related
to undergraduate medical education. The office of student affairs is also
responsible for overseeing graduation, senior elective advising, student fellowships,
career and residency advising, and counseling. “From the moment a student
walks through the door, student affairs takes over,” Gladstein says.
The grandson of Holocaust survivors and the son of first generation Americans,
Gladstein was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father recently retired from
the New York Stock Exchange, and his mother is a retired educator, who taught
in New York City public schools and the private Jewish schools in which Gladstein
was educated.
Gladstein says he knew he wanted to be a physician when he was four years
old. “I got sick with asthma,” he says, “and my pediatrician
spent a lot of time with me making me better. I really loved my pediatrician—he
was my first role model.”
Gladstein readily took to school, and he did well, and did well quickly. “I
finished elementary school and high school early,” he remembers. “I
went to Yeshiva College in New York City and finished my pre-med studies in
three years.” Between college and medical school, he took a year off
to teach 4th grade at the local Jewish school.
It took him four years to receive his medical degree from Albert Einstein
Medical School in the Bronx. “I didn’t do that quickly,” he
says with a smile. He completed a pediatrics residency at Albert Einstein,
and became chief resident in his fourth year. “After residency, I applied
for a fellowship in adolescent medicine,” he says. “The best program
at that time was at the University of Maryland. So in 1987 I came to Maryland,
planning to stay just for the two-year fellowship.”
The rest, as they say, is history: Fifteen years later, Gladstein is still
at Maryland. When the fellowship was over, Gladstein became an assistant professor
of pediatrics and ran the pediatrics inpatient service. It was at this time
that he became interested in headache—he has migraines himself—and
began working in pediatric neurology, where, he says, “I did a little
neurology, a little psychology, and a lot of adolescent medicine.”
In 1989 the University of Maryland School of Medicine opened a pediatric headache
clinic, and at the time it was one of only two in the country. Gladstein remembers
that “we started with one or two new patients a week, and quickly became
very, very busy.”
As Gladstein became well-known across the nation for his expertise in headache,
he also became known within the medical school. In 1995 after being promoted
to associate professor, he was asked to have lunch with Vice Dean Frank Calia.
Calia informed Gladstein that the medical school was in the middle of a search
for an associate dean for student affairs. Did Jack want to apply for the
job?
Because Gladstein also thought highly of Dr. Calia, and considered him a teaching
mentor, he agreed to apply for the position, with the realization that if
he got the job, he would need to “stay connected as a pediatrician, not
only as a role model, but also as a real doctor.”
Of his tenure as associate dean, Gladstein says, “This job is great!
I get to meet 150 wonderful new people every year and play a part in their
becoming physicians. I get to share in their life’s ups and downs—births,
deaths, celebrations, crises. I truly believe that it is a privilege to serve
the students.”
But it is also Gladstein’s duty to serve society. “I am an advocate
for each and every student,” he says. “But there are some students
who should not be in medical school, and I then have to become an advocate
for society.”
Gladstein says that his proudest moments as an administrator are those when
he sees a student who has been through adversity shine and succeed. “Several
years ago,” he remembers, “one of our third-year students was hit
by a car and had to have her leg amputated. She spent considerable time in
Shock Trauma. But she came right back to school. I helped her pick right back
up where she had left off before the accident. And now she’s getting
married!” he says with a huge grin.
Gladstein met his wife, Bette, on a blind date in college. In keeping with
Gladstein’s penchant for doing things early, they married just after
college and had two boys while Gladstein was in medical school. Their eldest
son, Aeli, is a junior at the University of Maryland College Park; son Ari
is a sophomore at Brandeis University. And stepping out of form, Gladstein
did something late for a change: he had another child—a girl. Seven-year-old
Penina, which means pearl in Hebrew, is but one of the many blessings in Jack
Gladstein’s life.