1 Department of Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, California
Pediatric chairmen have a privilege, certainly a unique and vitally important opportunity, to produce a new burst of energy within our discipline. Chairmen must possess an excitement about a wide range of issues, an enveloping perspective, and enthusiasm for administrative creativity that will produce an academic renaissance in American pediatrics. The reins of leadership can be grasped comfortably and flexibly, taking the job seriously but with a sense of cheer. We must take pride and share a belief in our discipline, position ourselves as striking examples for our students, and attract the very best of those students to pediatrics. Our mission must be underscored with a determination to educate superior students as superb pediatric clinicians or scientists or both.