Mark Roberts, MD, MPP, joined the Department of Health Policy and Management in 2010 and served as chair for more than a decade. Since then, he has been recognized by the University for his contributions to research and education, first as distinguished professor and now, in retirement, as professor emeritus.
“To summarize Mark’s career, in which he’s had so many accomplishments, is hard to do,” said HPM Professor and Chair Julie Donohue at a March event celebrating Roberts. “So, we brought in reinforcements to talk about all of the ways that he has shaped other people's careers in the field of public health, both here and in the School of Medicine for many years at the University of Pittsburgh.”
While some academics opt for a long lecture highlighting their research and work, Roberts, staying true to his laid-back nature, chose instead to reflect on what he found most important both in and outside of the office.
“Even though I'm a quantitative scientist and a physician, I have always found in my life that anecdotes are incredibly important,” said Roberts. “And anecdotes don't tell you the whole story, but they teach you things that just reading a paper or reading a chapter can't tell you.”
One such anecdote, as Roberts told the packed audience, came from early in his career when he was a fellow building a model to study end-stage liver disease. Roberts and a mentor spent more than two years developing software to enable more nuanced models than existed.
“Many of you who have done modeling with me know that most people think you ought to start with simple models and make them more complicated as you need to,” he said. “I've never believed that; I always start with the really, really complicated models. and try to get them to work.”
The work and research papers that resulted won awards and led to several job offers. Still, one comment stood out to Roberts, who says a colleague at Vanderbilt University told him that the method he believed was novel was actually very common in industrial engineering.
“Frank [Sonnenberg] and I thought we figured it out ourselves. And it turns out that all those years, all I would have had to do was go down to the Harvard Coop, walk across the street, go to the engineering section, go to chapter six or whatever, engineering simulation, and there would have been the answer to my problem.”
That early lesson followed Roberts to Pitt, where he focused on multidisciplinary research and, while in HPM, he held secondary appointments in Medicine, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration and Clinical and Translational Science.
With colleagues from across those disciplines piled into a classroom in the Public Health building, and many more attending virtually, Roberts gave thanks to those who worked for, with and perhaps most importantly, those who saved his life, calling out UPMC and the School of Medicine’s Drs. Donald Yealy and Derek Angus, who were among those who cared for him after an intracranial aneurysm ruptured 14 years ago.
“Don and Derek Angus and the neurosurgery team saved not only my life, but what is more, perhaps important for this particular day is they saved my brain, which, at least according to the University, has some value to it,” quipped Roberts.
Roberts then turned to colleagues in the School of Public Health, starting with Dean Emeritus Donald Burke, who encouraged him to apply to the HPM chair opening. Roberts and Burke also worked closely on mathematical modeling and simulations in the Public Health Dynamics Laboratory, which has led to many advances in understanding how diseases spread and evolve.
“I had a great time as chair, mostly because some of the people in this room got to be faculty members. You know, as many of you know, one of my tenets is always hire people who are smarter than yourself. And I found that I did that every single time.”
Roberts also acknowledged long-time HPM director of business administration Tina Micale, who he says taught him how to be a chair. “She taught me that I still had to do the things I didn't want to do, even if I didn't want to do them, because you're the chair, you have to do it. Buck stops with you, doesn't stop with anybody else.”
While Roberts expressed thanks to those he worked with, the subsequent speakers reciprocated, telling the audience how Roberts had impacted their careers and lives.
Doris Rubio, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences, Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Advancement, Director of the Institute for Clinical Research Education and Professor of Medicine, ran through what she called “Mark’s Superpowers.” Citing his demeanor and personality, Rubio credited Roberts with the ability to “teach anyone anything,” while also praising his “can-do” attitude to take on projects that many others may have shied away from.
“Who else takes over a newly funded grant because the PI goes on sabbatical to Spain, and in the course of a year, creates a certificate program and two master's degrees, one in medical education, one in clinical research, which at the time, we didn't know if it was the start of the ICRE,” said Rubio.
Like others who spoke, Rubio said Roberts was often the first she’d go to for many things, both at work and in life. “I often say that I wanted Mark in any meeting just for his brain. If I ever had something to struggle with, Mark was my go-to. He’s one of those people who can make the life of an ant sound interesting. We all know when Mark walks into your office, it is never for a quick question, but it always involves laughter and enjoyment, and you always wish the conversation lasted just a little bit longer.”
Like any academic with a career spanning more than three decades, Roberts has mentored his fair share of students, many of whom have gone on to their own successes, including HPM Assistant Professor Praveen Kumar, who earned his PhD under Roberts’ tutelage.
“Dr. Roberts has had a significant influence on my career for the better, and he has changed the way I think to some extent,” said Kumar, who says that as a student, Roberts challenged him to look at what led to the questions he was asking and look at the situation on a deeper level. He also credited his success as a student to Roberts’ approach to his mentees.
“When I came here, I expressed interest in focusing on cancer, and he immediately introduced me to people right there, which I was not expecting,” said Kumar. “I also learned that PhD studies are not linear; everyone has bumps along the way, and he was there to help through all of it. I didn’t have a background in health care, and I’m grateful he took a chance on me.”
As the chair who succeeded Roberts, Donohue credited his work as a leader in building Health Policy and Management, even as the landscape of health care and higher education shifted. “He recruited truly outstanding faculty and staff that helped to elevate the national reputation of the department and the work that we do,” she said. “He was unbelievably dedicated to the educational mission, as chair Mark was teaching four courses while maintaining a full research program. Nobody does that, but he did.”
-Mike Friend
Photos from the event are viewable on Flickr.