DJW Associates combines the experience of the partners with the talents of collaborating individuals and firms who are recognized experts in specific areas of medical education, organizational development, hospital administration, health care financing and other fields, as needed.
Linda M. Asher
Linda M. Asher has been with DJW Associates since its inception as strategic administrator and operations executive. After completing her studies at the University of Kentucky, she was engaged in accounting, finance, research budgeting and grants management, research performance and administration, and public relations. Ms. Asher was an administrator in the Office of the Provost at the University of Chicago responsible for research and grant management. In this position, she was involved in Search and Review, University of Chicago Press, Oriental Institute and University of Chicago Library activities. Ms. Asher joined the staff of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 2000 as Liaison between and among the College of Medicine, other colleges of health professions, University of Kentucky Administration, and the Kentucky Governor's Office and Legislature. In 2004, she also became the founding Executive Director of the Kentucky Institute of Medicine, a statewide organization modeled after the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, that was organized to improve the health of the people of Kentucky by providing objective, evidence-based advice concerning health and healthcare to policy makers, professionals, leaders of society, and the public. The Institute accomplishes this mission by sponsoring research, collating and analyzing information, and developing a consensus among the members of the institute about issues relating to health and health care that are in the best interest of the public. Ms. Asher's proven record of success in medical school operations and her ability to interact with all constituences form the basis for her involvement with DJW Associates activities and her value to other health care entitites.
Robert M. Daugherty, Jr., MD, PhD
Dr. Robert Daugherty has devoted his entire career to building programs in medical education. He was the Vice President for Health Sciences at the University of South Florida in Tampa from 2001 – 2004 and served for 20 years as the Dean of Medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Dr. Daugherty chaired the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges, where he spearheaded its leadership development program to prepare academicians to become deans. He also chaired the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical. Dr. Daugherty represented the AMA to the National Board of Medical Examiners as well as the ACCME and the ACGME. He has been active in international efforts to set standards for the quality of medical education and recently served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Introducing Behavioral and Social Sciences into Medical School Curricula.
In Nevada, Dr. Daugherty spearheaded the establishment of a clinical campus in Las Vegas, where Nevada medical students received a large proportion of their year 3 and 4 clinical training experiences in a non-university owned hospital. He also provided the leadership to develop a statewide Area Health Education Center, enlarging and strengthening the rural health education program in the entire state.
Kathleen A. Conaboy
Ms. Conaboy has 25 years’ experience in medical school administration, with special emphasis on institutional advancement, special project management, organizational development, and facilities planning and management. She served at the University of Nevada School of Medicine as Assistant Dean for Planning and Development, where she directed the public relations and marketing, government relations, student recruitment, alumni relations, and development functions. In national leadership roles, she served the Association of American Medical Colleges on the Synergy Group, a national committee responsible to develop communication strategy to support advocacy initiatives, and as national vice chair for public relations of the Group on Institutional Advancement.
At the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center, she was Associate Vice President for Organizational Development, she was involved in the overall strategic planning process for the health sciences center.
Her work on the development of major medical education facilities includes contracting for land acquisition, strategic planning with educational affiliates, relationship building with corporate partners, space program development with faculty and design committees, and facility management and maintenance. She has worked with state and city government, hospital corporations and managed care organizations on project development.
Ms. Conaboy has nine years’ experience in international development, working on medical education reform programs in Eastern Europe and in Central Asia.
Mitzi M. Schumacher, PhD
Dr. Mitzi Schumacher is professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Kentucky. She has more than eight years of experience performing salary equity studies for university faculty. She is a member of the University President’s Commission on Women. To facilitate the examination of salary data, she has designed a program to extract data for salary equity from university databases and payroll systems.
David S. Watt, PhD
Dr. Watt has spent the last twenty years of his career in university administration. He is currently the Professor of Biochemistry and former Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, and Executive Dean in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Watt has handled a variety of different areas of responsibility over the course of his career including faculty and chair recruitment issues; faculty retention programs; oversight for institutional academic priorities and investments in new research areas; interactions with faculty governance structures; oversight of academic infrastructure (i.e., undergraduate admissions, registrar, advising, honors programs, etc.); oversight of facilities and facility planning; and support for institutional shared values. Dr. Watt founded a biotechnology business, now operating as Elisa Technologies, Inc., and served as the first director of the University’s “incubator” facility, the Advanced Science and Technology Commercialization Center (ASTeCC), for new-start businesses.
Dr. Watt was educated at Dartmouth College (BA, 1967) and later at Harvard University (AM, 1969; PhD, 1972). He obtained his PhD degree in organic chemistry under the direction of Professor E. J. Corey and was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow in biochemistry under Professor K. Bloch, also at Harvard.
Dr. Watt works with DJW Associates in the areas of administration, organizational structure, research, research infrastructure, financial management, space management, and graduate education.