Dartmouth is pleased to announce a $5 million gift from Patty and Doug Sacks '80 that will endow two early career professorships at the Geisel School of Medicine.
The Patricia R. and Douglas L. Sacks Early Career Professorships will aim to attract exceptional faculty to Geisel whose research, teaching, or clinical work has shown immense promise in their respective fields. By offering flexible funding and long-term stability for a five-year term, the professorships will empower holders during a critical career stage, helping them establish a strong foundation from which to make significant and lasting contributions to Geisel, and to medicine, for years to come.
"Dartmouth faculty have long been leaders in health and science, playing a leading role in breakthroughs from the birth of AI to building a national model for rural health care innovation," says President Sian Leah Beilock. "Thanks to the forward-thinking generosity of Patty and Doug Sacks, we will be supporting new faculty at a critical point in their careers and investing in a new generation of medical research and education at Geisel."
Endowed early career professorships are powerful tools for nurturing talent. They provide protected time, research resources, and professional recognition. They can be especially transformative in today's funding landscape, where large-scale federal grants—which provide a stable foundation for a researcher's career—are increasingly difficult to secure.
With the Sacks professorships, Geisel will begin to recruit two new faculty appointed at the assistant or associate professor level. New holders will be nominated by Geisel's dean and selected following Dartmouth's established procedures.
The Sacks' gift comes at a crucial time. By 2030, approximately 15 Geisel professors will retire. In addition to those retiring, more than 65% of tenured Geisel professors are in the later stages of their careers.
This creates an urgent need to develop a strong pipeline of early career faculty who, along with established leaders, can support the long-term health of Geisel's teaching and research enterprise.
"In creating these endowed professorships, we are elevating one of Geisel's central strategic priorities: recruiting and retaining the very best faculty at all career levels and ensuring that they can infuse their expertise and perspectives into our inherently collaborative environment," says Steven Leach, Geisel's interim dean. "I have no doubt that this gift will serve as a generational investment in our institution that will be felt for years to come."
Doug and Patty Sacks have deep roots at Dartmouth, as well as a longstanding dedication to enhancing the Geisel experience for students and faculty alike. Doug Sacks graduated from Dartmouth in 1980, while Patty Sacks, an early childhood social worker, chairs the Geisel Board of Advisors. Their oldest daughter Olivia earned her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth in 2011 and graduated from Geisel with a medical degree in 2019.
"As parents of a Geisel graduate, we have seen the positive impact that a faculty member can have on nurturing students and setting them up for successful careers," says Patty Sacks, who says that her daughter's time at Geisel was in many ways defined by the mentorship she received from faculty.
For the Sacks, this latest gift is part of a continuing commitment to strengthening the Geisel experience. In 2020, their $2 million gift helped to establish Healthy Students, Healthy Physicians, a groundbreaking program that prepares students to meet the challenges of their profession without sacrificing their health. Available to all Geisel MD, MD-PhD, and MD-MBA students, the program offers free counseling, resilience training, and confidential mental health screening.
"A medical school is defined by its people," says Patty Sacks. "By investing in early career faculty, we are choosing to invest in the people who make Geisel so special. We look forward to seeing these bright minds build their careers at Geisel, advance health and medicine, and transform new classes of students into compassionate health care leaders."