A Walk Through A Dream

The following email was originally posted on June 15, 2018

Due to a rather pesky pituitary gland adenoma (pituitary gland tumor) that has attached itself to my optic nerve, I have had two surgeries the first in 2010 and the latest being in May 2017 with a specialist at UCSF.  The specialist did a great job and this time it appears that most of the adenoma has been removed.  However, not all of it can be removed, so as a precautionary measure I need to get an MRI done each year just to check to make sure that my inner friend has not grown.  

Such was the case this past Wednesday.  I went to the brand new UCSF Mission Bay Medical Center to have an MRI done.  When I say brand new, it means that this hospital was just constructed within the last four years.  I know this because my daughter was housed on the Mission Bay campus during her years in the UCSF Pharmacy School and while she was there, most of the campus consisted of vacant lots.  Now four years later, the campus has undergone a major transformation.  It is now a medical complex for the 21st Century with all the bells and whistles such a designation would imply.  You can see for yourself at

https://www.ucsf.edu/about/locations/mission-bay#the-mission-bay-campus

http://www.ucsfmissionbayhospitals.org/

To put it mildly, I was amazed.  So impressed was I by the new improvements that, after my MRI was done, I felt compelled to walk about (I do tend to do that a lot).  Walking north towards my middle daughter's former dorm, I crossed the street to the front of a Walgreen's Pharmacy imbedded in the Global Health and Clinical Sciences building.  As soon as I crossed the street I was met by the gateway sign which read "Haile T. Debas South Gateway".  Intrigued by the Ethiopian sounding name (remember Haile Selassie), I paused just in time to see beneath my feet the plaques that had been placed in the walkway which read: 

Haile T. Debas, MD

UCSF School of Medicine Dean, 1993-2003

UCSF Chancellor, 1997-1998

This installation celebrates the spirited leadership of Haile T. Debas, for whom this gateway is named.

Born and raised in the African nation of Eritrea, the young Haile Debas drew inspiration from the Robert Browning poem Andrea del Sarto, an excerpt of which he framed and hung in his boyhood bedroom.

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,

Or what's a heaven for?

Nearly four decades later -- and in precisely the same spirit -- this gifted surgeon, beloved teacher and visionary administrator challenged conventional wisdom to make his dream of the UCSF Mission Bay campus come true.

Taking the time to look around at one of the most modern medical complexes in the world, it humbled me to realize that all that I was seeing was a byproduct of the dream of an African immigrant from one of those African nations we lately have seen labeled in a rather profane way.  Later on, during a pause on my walk, I read more about Haile Debas and came to realize just how much this man has contributed and how many, not just thousands, but millions of lives he has touched.  I began to wonder if such could be the product from the dreams of one dreamer, just how much more could we profit from the dreams of other such dreamers?

I do not know about you, but I, for one, would like to find out.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975

P.S. This is what Wikipedia has to say about Haile T. Debas:

Haile T. Debas was born in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1937. Following undergraduate training at University College of Addis Ababa, he received his M.D. from McGill University in 1963, and completed his surgical training at the University of British Columbia. His postgraduate training included a year as a research fellow at the University of Glasgow/Western Infirmary in Scotland, and two years at UCLA as a Medical Research Council Scholar in gastrointestinal physiology.

After a year in private practice in the Yukon Territories and British Columbia, he joined the surgery faculty of the University of British Columbia in 1970. He remained there until 1980, and then served on the faculty of UCLA (1980-1985) and the University of Washington (1985-1987).

In 1987, Debas came to UCSF as chair of the Department of Surgery. During his tenure, UCSF became one of the country's leading centers for transplant surgery, the training of young surgeons, and basic and clinical research in surgery. Debas achieved national recognition as a gastrointestinal investigator and made original contributions to the physiology, biochemistry, and pathophysiology of gastrointestinal peptide hormones.

Debas served as Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine from 1993-2003. Under his leadership, the School became a national model for medical education, an achievement for which he was recognized with the 2004 Abraham Flexner Award of the AAMC. Major initiatives included the formation of several interdepartmental and interdisciplinary centers of excellence, the development of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, a redesign of the UCSF Human Genetics Program, and important changes in the medical school curriculum.

In 1997, Haile T. Debas was appointed the seventh Chancellor of UCSF, agreeing to accept the appointment for a period of one year. Serving concurrently as both Chancellor and School of Medicine Dean, he played a key role in all of the major initiatives of the campus, including the development of UCSF Stanford Health Care, the campus at Mission Bay, and the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Debas was founding Executive Director of UCSF Global Health Sciences (GHS) since its establishment in 2003 until the appointment of Jaime Sepulveda in 2011. GHS integrates UCSF expertise in the health, social, and biological sciences to focus on issues such as the global impact of diseases of poverty, chronic illness, and the worldwide threats of infectious diseases. Debas was named Global Health Advisor to UCSF in 2011 by Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, and now works in that capacity.

Debas has held leadership positions with numerous membership organizations and professional associations. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine. He currently serves on the United Nations Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa and on the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences.