MOUNT SINAI LEGACIES
Jessie M. Galson, PhD, MSSM ’86, and Steven K. Galson, MD, MPH, MSSM ’83, met while students at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Jessie Galson is currently a Regulatory Writer at PRO Unlimited and Dr. Steven Galson is Senior Vice President for Global Regulatory Affairs and Safety at Amgen. Previously Dr. Steven Galson served as the acting Surgeon General of the United States and Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA.
WHY MOUNT SINAI
Steven was originally attracted to Mount Sinai by the school’s location at the intersection of the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem, as well as by the school’s faculty and facilities. While at Mount Sinai, he developed an interest in public health, which would allow him to impact the greatest number of people by addressing underlying societal issues causing widespread health problems.
Jessie came to Mount Sinai for the outstanding professors. Her education here taught her the importance of having a critical eye when evaluating research. Her children saw that she and her husband had great careers after their training at Mount Sinai. When it was their turn to enter medicine, the Galson’s son and daughter followed in their parents’ footsteps and studied at Mount Sinai.
A ROBUST CAREER
Steven and Jessie have both had transformative careers in science and medicine. One of Jessie’s proudest professional accomplishments is her work at Human Genome Sciences, where she started a department for regulatory writing. There, she worked for almost ten years on a new lupus treatment, which once approved became the first new medication available to lupus patients in nearly fifty years.
Steven has dedicated his career to health policy. He considers unequal access to health care the biggest problem facing the United States. The US spends more per capita on health care, but health outcomes are worse than other developed countries. Even worse, large populations in the US lack access to even the most basic care.
ADVICE TO STUDENTS
Jessie’s advice for students is to find mentors by joining organizations associated with the field that most interests them. Go to meetings as a way to meet people, and do not be shy about having conversations. People are willing to offer advice; it’s the first few steps that are the hardest part.
Steven stresses looking at the range of career opportunities available to students. Being trained in medicine means there are nontraditional career paths such as public health, health care administration, and global medicine open to students who have interests outside of traditional venues.
IMPORTANCE OF GIVING TO SCHOLARSHIPS
Both Drs. Galson stress the importance of supporting scholarships, because students who graduate with high levels of debt may be steered away from fields most in need of physicians and scientists. For example, debt drives students away from primary care specialties and into sub specialties that may be more highly compensated, to the detriment of patients. Medical schools thrive with diverse, talented students, and scholarships can attract some of the most promising candidates into medicine.