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Doctor encourages women to stand out by Heather Woolwine Public Relations Florence “Flo” Hutchison, M.D., is known throughout campus as the compassionate and capable chief of staff at the Ralph A. Johnson Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center and the MUSC associate dean for Veterans Affairs. What many don’t know, however, is that Hutchison left the deep South for many years in order to pursue a career unencumbered by the constraints and expectations placed on Southern women in the 60s and 70s.   Dr. Flo Hutchison Born in New Orleans and raised in Jackson, Miss., as the oldest of five children, Hutchison had streaks of independence early on. Her father, a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, and her mother, a social worker, encouraged Hutchison and her siblings to open their minds from the beginning. “The culture of the deep South for women at that time was you could be pretty, but not smart,” Hutchison said. “The perception was men could go out and succeed in whatever they wanted. Women could be smart and engaged, but only on a volunteer or community basis, not professionally.”   As Hutchison grew into a young woman considering her options, she decided to drop out of Millsaps College, located in her hometown, following her first year. “My parents were understandably very upset, but they continued to be supportive by helping to get me a job in [Dr.] Arthur Guyton’s lab,” she recalled. “Working as a lab tech for a man who today is widely considered the father of modern physiology was an incredible experience for me. I worked on real world studies looking at how the kidneys help to regulate blood pressure. I performed animal experiments, and I learned so much. I think my father knew that if he could just get me exposed to those things, that it would be enough to engage me and get me back into school. He was right.”   She later returned to Millsaps College and earned a biology degree, and continued to work in the lab. “I really loved working in the lab; the excitement of getting an experiment to work and finding the answers to the questions asked. It was around this time that I realized that I didn’t want to work as a lab tech forever. I wanted to be the Ph.D. or M.D. deciding what the original question was going to be and then following it through to find the answers.”   Encouraged by a number of mentors, including young post doctoral fellows in Guyton’s lab, Hutchison entered medical school at the University of Mississippi and graduated in 1980. “I remember one male student telling another female student who was married and had children that she was wasting a spot for a man, because she would never practice,” she said.   Hutchison took stock of her options once again. “I wanted to get out of the South, and I had always felt a little bit like a round peg in a square hole because of the expectations placed on women at that time,” she said. “In California, I didn’t believe that people would expect me to get married and have a bunch of children.”   Hutchison began a residency at St. Mary’s Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco. “I lived down the street from Jefferson Starship and became immersed in a very different culture with a completely different ethnic mix. I came from a city of thousands to a city of millions. It was a huge change,” she said.   During residency, Hutchison found it difficult, even in California, to find female role models in medicine. Those who did exist were overwhelmed with increasing numbers of women looking for guidance in the clinical and research world. “I was a senior resident, trying to decide what to do, when I got this call from this strange man with children hollering in the background,” Hutchison recalled. “He introduced himself as George and approached me about a nephrology fellowship with the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Martinez [Calif.].”   In the early 1980s, only a handful of female nephrologists existed in academic medicine. Less than 20 percent of trained nephrologists across the country were women, according to Hutchison. “It’s kind of surprising, but that was good for that time period,” she said. “George [Kaysen] was most pivotal in terms of my academic career, because he was demanding but able to have fun. He was candid and honest, and he challenged me. I remember my first paper on which I’d worked so hard, draft after draft after draft. He tore it up right in front of me. I was totally deflated, but soon realized that it wasn’t meant to be malicious. He could have said something nice and given me a pat on the head for all the hard work, but I wouldn’t have learned to write.”   Around this time, Hutchison acknowledged the need to stand out in her field. While attending her first national nephrologists’ meeting, she noticed that blending in was not for her. “There was this sea of four or five thousand blue and black suits. I promised myself right there that I was going to buy a red suit to wear to the next meeting. I wanted to be seen and heard. I think everyone should try to stand out in some way so their ideas are heard,” she said.   Hutchison continued her mentoring relationship with Kaysen once she accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of California at Davis and continued as a staff nephrologist at the Martinez VA.   Pivotal in her career was how her mentor always put her first. “I’ve seen people in academia who are supposedly mentoring, but … they are promoting their own agenda, instead of helping their younger colleague find opportunities to develop as a clinician and/or researcher,” she said. “George always put me first. He said, ‘Flo, you have to find your own track. Find a complicated question that you can have a great time chasing for your whole career. You need to be Flo, not that woman working with George’.”   After 10 years in California, Hutchison began to reevaluate her choices on the West coast. Watching some administrators, and even some colleagues, becoming too concerned with jockeying for personal glory, Hutchison said she didn’t want to be in an environment that sacrificed the desire to solve the mysteries of science for pursuit of fancy titles and praise. Realizing the importance of teaching and clinical care, she wanted to remain grounded.   Ultimately, an intricate web of contacts and networking opportunities crossed her path with David Ploth, M.D., MUSC Division of Nephrology director. “The timing was just right. I thought, ‘now here is a university with a fantastic mission, and a division that’s trying to grow a much needed specialty in a vastly underserved state,” she said. “It seemed overwhelming and exciting. [It’s still exciting, recalling] how wonderful it felt to become involved in something that was not going to be just another copy of all the other departments out there. It was an opportunity to be a part of a maturing university and a changing culture of medicine, which I still think is true. Even today, we look for people with that fire in their belly, people who are excited about what they are doing and being the next generation of teachers, as well as establishing research careers.”   Accepting a position as associate professor of medicine at MUSC, Hutchison originally divided her time between seeing patients at MUSC and the VA and teaching medical students. She met Betty Roof, M.D., an endocrinologist who served Hutchison as another influential mentor. “She was a lovely person, so kind and helpful. She was a good person to talk to,” she said. “Rosalie Crouch was another prominent figure whom I have much respect for, and I have truly admired all her efforts at MUSC.”   At the turn of the millennium, opportunities consumed Hutchison, and she quickly ascended to a full professorship, and entered her current positions as chief of staff for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center and the MUSC associate dean for VA Affairs.   An author of more than 50 publications, Hutchison has also responded to interim leadership requests with enthusiasm, including currently serving as the acting director for the VA. She chairs the VISN7 Health Systems Council for a group of eight VA medical centers throughout the Southeast, which is dedicated to moving forward in advanced delivery and quality of services. Hutchison has been instrumental in taking the centers within that group from average performance in terms of standards of care to the top tier of quality and safety, including a spot for the VISN7 as number two in the nation for quality of care.   Hutchison has numerous professional society memberships. She has received awards and honors for her research and teaching abilities, and now serves as a mentor for future physicians.   “The reality of the world is that cultural structure changes take a long time. An institution can wait four to five years before anyone is able to see the results of a change; imagine changing societal norms for women that have existed over thousands of years,” she said. “It took a while to break into the good old boys’ club, and a lot of men have put that aside and are promoters of women’s professional growth. I think they recognize the opportunities for both women and men with this acceptance. Things are changing a lot; I see a great deal of proactive efforts on the part of male leadership here to serve as role models and try to address issues women are facing, and provide better opportunities for women as a result of that.”   Hutchison also sees a difference in male medical students these days and how they view family issues as related to their careers.   “Men are starting to be more involved in family life and are seeing the importance of issues that women have always been concerned about. We’re all struggling to adjust academic medicine to better fit the biological needs of women so they can move up the ladder and on to a full academic career just like men do. Our male students and administration are now realizing the need for flexibility to meet all of those responsibilities. There’s a new generation that sees family roles differently, and as we move forward, this generation will change the way academia functions. It won’t necessarily be good or bad, just different. Us old codgers are just going to have to hang out and get out of the way.   “I find myself at an age where I am becoming one of the conservatives. Never thought that would happen,” Hutchison said with a laugh. “But, I still feel that the most important thing to remember in making a medical and research career is that you have to stand up, get yourself noticed and take on tasks that make you learn new skills. Make contributions that matter to your organization and continue to learn and develop as a person. And wear a red suit.”     Friday, March 16, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. 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