Office of Academic Affiliations

Last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma, VA’s NAAC met to further advance the largest public-private partnership in VA’s history, harnessing many of its diverse partnerships to meet their goals.

Last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma, VA’s National Academic Affiliations Council met at the Ernest K. Childers VA Outpatient Clinic to further advance the largest public-private partnership in VA’s history, harnessing many of its diverse partnerships to meet their goals.

The 14-member council meets quarterly to create recommendations and advise VA leadership on matters affecting relationships between VA and the health professions community.

Participants included various offices within VA, the Indian Health Service, Oklahoma State University, and Cherokee Nation.

Dr. James Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College and chairman of the council, spoke of the importance of enhancing partnerships to accomplish the council’s mission.

“This council meeting was of particular significance as we joined with many different organizations to better our partnerships with academic affiliates and reshape the VA health-care system for continued excellence,” said Hildreth. “I enjoyed the collaborative effort and look forward to seeing policy enhancements based on the council’s recommendations.”

As part of the meeting, council members received tours of the Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation, W.W. Hastings Hospital, and Cherokee Nation Outpatient Health Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The tours highlighted the importance of various organizations such as VA, academic affiliates, and local communities working together to better health care for Veterans as well as the Nation.

Office Of Academic Affiliations (OAAs) Chief Academic Affiliations Officer Dr. Marjorie Bowman attended the meeting and spoke of the incredible work that comes from the council collaborations.

“It’s all about asking ‘how can we make a difference for Veterans and for the country,’” said Bowman. “This meeting was truly rejuvenating in bringing us back to our core mission of making and strengthening those academic partnerships to better health care in our Nation.”

The mission of training future health professionals for VA and the Nation, established more than 75 years ago, is one of VA’s four statutory missions and is overseen by OAA. Nearly 70% of all U.S. physicians complete training in VA and more than 118,000 health professions trainees in over 60 clinical disciplines train at VA each year as they care for Veterans.