On
a sunny summer day in the 1950s in Baltimore, a fair-haired twelve-year-old
was taken on a Sunday drive down Lombard Street by his family. As the car
passed Davidge Hall, the boy thought to himself: “What a pretty building—I
am going to work there when I grow up!”
That fair-haired boy was Gregory F. Handlir, MBA, associate dean for resource
management at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Handlir is responsible
for overseeing the financial, space management, human resources and other
administration functions of the medical school. He oversees a budget of $417.3
million and a staff of 17.
After graduating from Baltimore’s Loyola College with a BA in economics
in 1969, Handlir immediately began working on a master’s degree in business
administration, also at Loyola. In 1971, he applied for a position at Maryland
to be administrative assistant to the assistant dean for finance, Wayne Kennedy.
He got the job, and—you guessed it—an office in Davidge Hall.
In 1972, then-Dean John Moxley was recruited to the University of California
at San Diego. Dean Moxley asked Kennedy to go with him, and Kennedy, in turn,
asked Handlir to join them. “It was a wonderful opportunity, but I refused
the job because I thought I’d have more opportunity to grow at Maryland,”
Handlir says.
When John Dennis, ’45, took Moxley’s place as dean, he promoted
Handlir to assistant dean for finance. By this time, Handlir had completed
his MBA and was settling comfortably into his new role at the medical school.
And in 1974, when University Hospital was still a part of the University of
Maryland (the hospital and medical school separated in 1984, and the University
of Maryland Medical Center became a private, not-for-profit hospital), Handlir
put on an additional hat and became acting assistant director of the hospital.
“A two-year period from which I’ve still not recovered,” he
says with a laugh. His role at the hospital was to stabilize finance and administration,
especially in view of the fact that University of Maryland Hospital did not
have a permanent director or chief operating officer at that time. Handlir
fondly recalls working side by side with the acting director, Dr. John Young
Jr., who was also head of the division of urology.
| This
profile is one in an ongoing series of profiles on the dean's support staff who work with Dean Donald E. Wilson in executing the mission of the medical school. |
In 1977, the entire finance
office moved from Handlir’s beloved Davidge Hall to the brand-new Bressler
Research Building. Handlir thrived under Dean Dennis’ leadership and,
in 1982, was named associate dean for finance. The position was upgraded in
1986 to its current title: associate dean for resource management. “The
new title more accurately reflected the full nature of the scope of responsibility
of the office,” Handlir says.
Dennis retired in 1990; Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP, became dean in 1991. The
amount of progress during the last decade under Dean Wilson’s leadership
has been phenomenal, and Handlir has had a hand in many of the major changes
that have occurred in those 10 years.
“It has been tremendously satisfying to watch the evolution and growth
of this medical school,” Handlir says. “The University of Maryland
School of Medicine, once primarily known for its teaching mission, has become
a top-tier research enterprise. In the 1970s, when I got here, there were
fewer than 400 faculty and they were bringing in around $20 million a year
in grants and contracts. Now there are almost 1,000 faculty who bring in over
$200 million a year in grants and contracts,” he marvels.
One of the things of which Handlir is most proud is his leadership role in
implementing
mission-based management. “This medical school was the first of a handful
of institutions to implement a mission-based management approach,” Handlir
says. “We focus on what departments do with their resources to accomplish
the school’s mission, and we try to align revenues to each mission, including
education, research and patient care.” This process has resulted in better
utilization of all resources across the entire school.
Adequate research space is an important component of keeping a medical school
competitive. In the last year alone nearly 28,000 net square feet of research
space has become available, allowing the school to sustain its research momentum.
Handlir continues to play a key role in the school’s physical plant expansion
by creating new space and recapturing and reallocating existing space. “The
square footage of our research space has more than doubled since the 1970s.
I find few things more satisfying than to bring in a new lab on time and on
budget, and before a new recruit arrives,” he says. The completion of
Health Sciences Facility II in December will provide an additional 70,000
net square feet of research space, which will give the school a huge competitive
advantage.
A
medical school is only as good as the people in it, and Handlir is proud of
the role he has played in the recruitment of every chair and many of the senior
faculty who have arrived in the last three decades. “One of the things
I like best about working here is the wonderful attitude of the chairs and
faculty. And I pride myself on the support my office provides the faculty,
staff and administration,” he says.
The last decade, while having seen the most growth, has also in some ways
been the most difficult of Handlir’s tenure. “The decade of the
1990s was a tumultuous time,” he says. “It began with state budget
cuts. Then came the managed care era and the ratcheting down of reimbursements.
But due to Don Wilson’s leadership, we actually prospered. We took strategic
actions to increase our revenues and to leverage our state funding. What it
comes down to is managing all of our resources, and never resting on our laurels.”
According to Handlir, what has remained constant in the 31 years he’s
spent at the medical school is “our fundamental academic values, our
commitment to teaching and research, and our quest for new knowledge. The
fundamental underpinnings of this medical school remain stronger than ever.”
Although Handlir oversees the resource management function from his office
on the top floor of the tallest building on campus, his heart remains in Davidge
Hall.