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Leader Profile: Michelle Hofmann's Path to Medicial Education In Utah
By Michelle Hofmann, MD, MPH, MHCDS
Reflecting on my career, I find myself thinking about the two people who influenced me the most: my parents.
My father, a Holocaust survivor, hid on a farm while his parents were forced into the Budapest ghetto. My mother, raised in post-war Germany, still eats the rationed cucumber and radish sandwiches of her youth.
They faced hardship yet built a life that ensured my siblings and I never experienced the trauma they endured. Their resilience and love shaped me—not just as a doctor, but as a leader.
A Career Defined by Purpose
In Dr. Seuss’s “My Book About Me by Me, Myself,” a yellow two-page spread opens with a prompt:
“WHEN I GROW UP, I WANT TO BE A ________”
In confident, squiggly handwriting, I wrote: Pediatrician.
While my dreams of being a pediatrician came true, what I didn’t expect was my winding, ever-changing path to leadership. The moments of pivotal change have always happened when I raised my hand to do something hard. Each opportunity deepened my understanding of disparities in health care and strengthened my resolve to address them.
I began as a part-time nocturnist at Primary Children’s Hospital while caring for my children. Over time, I took on leadership roles, building programs from scratch and advocating for kids with complex medical needs. I hopped around between various medical director roles and focused on building better systems of care for children and their families.
Eventually, I wanted more formal leadership training, so I went to Dartmouth College, where I earned a Master in Health Care Delivery Science (MHCDS) degree. I graduated from Dartmouth on February 1, 2020. At the time, I was practicing clinically in a nursing home for children with ventilator dependency. Recognizing the danger nursing homes faced, I started volunteering to support the Utah Department of Health—until I was asked to come work for them full-time.
With guidance and encouragement from mentors like Ed Clark, MD, and Angelo Giardino, MD, PhD, MPH, I took a leap into public health and soon became involved in leading all aspects of Utah’s COVID-19 response. I considered the professional risks of such a drastic change, but knew I had to act.
I am proud to say Utah had one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the nation. I’m even more proud to have played a small part in lifting up a beaten down public health workforce and cultivating a shared sense of purpose to drive innovation and outcomes.
Passion as a Leadership Tool
At the health department, I learned to intentionally harness my passion to help the underserved.
In the heat of the pandemic, amidst the politics and divisiveness, my passion was tempered by tailored and scripted remarks at press conferences. Then things came to a head in Fall 2021. Health systems and health care workers were so stressed, masks and vaccines were becoming divisive, and the mental health crisis was escalating. In my own family, I had a loved one hospitalized for suicidal ideation.
I went off script. I wrote my own remarks. I channeled my passion to give voice to my family, health care workers, and the vulnerable populations of our state. I told Utah’s leaders we needed to wear our masks and get our shots.
After that press conference, my peers reached out. They thanked me for giving them voice and having their back. But the media had a heyday. This happened to be the same press conference where our top state leader said, “Masks are not as effective as most of the pro-mask crowd are arguing.”
I thought I would lose my job. I didn’t. A leader uses their passion to give voice to the needs of their team, their community. And that’s what I plan to do in my new role as interim senior associate dean of the Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus.
From Crisis Leadership to Academic Medicine
My experience in public health tested every facet of my leadership. One of my most challenging projects was merging the Utah Departments of Health and Human Services. Unifying two different cultures in the middle of a pandemic, managing a workforce of more than 6,000 employees, and addressing burnout rates exceeding 90% required clear vision and deep empathy.
The pace of change was brisk, and a lot of the change (too much) was being driven from the top down. I learned that building resilient teams comes through fostering autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I tried to do this by leading with vision and passion.
Now, I’ve returned to academic medicine to apply those lessons to a new challenge: expanding medical education in Southern Utah. We’re focused on training physicians who will stay and serve in Utah’s rural communities. We hope to accomplish this by locating their clinical training in the very same communities where they will eventually work.
Utah’s primary care physician shortage is real. We are last in the nation in primary care physicians per capita. This impact is even more deeply felt in rural areas. Our work at the Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus goes beyond expanding medical training. It’s about building a sustainable pipeline of rural primary care providers who understand and are committed to serving in these communities.
In Utah, For Utah
At its core, the Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus belongs to the community. Academic medicine can sometimes feel like an ivory tower, disconnected from local needs. We are taking a different approach in Southern Utah by embedding rural representation in all aspects of planning. An embedded approach lets us learn from the trainees already in rural settings while creating rural medical education and clinical training experiences that prepare and inspire graduates to stay and serve.
Goals for the Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus:
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Expand class size for the Southern Utah MD cohort.
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Bring graduate medical education in primary care fields to Southern Utah.
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Reduce student debt and accelerate workforce entry with three-year MD program.
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Link MD students at Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus to rural-focused residency programs in Utah.
Similar programs in other states have seen retention rates of 75% or higher. Our goal is to build a model that trains great physicians and strengthens the rural communities they serve.
The Future of Health Care Leadership
As leaders, we must foster resilience in ourselves and in those we lead. That means acknowledging the uncertainty of our time, recognizing the emotions it brings, and listening deeply before charging ahead. Curiosity about our colleagues and communities will help us grow. A shared sense of purpose will empower us to create meaningful change.
And when we find that shared purpose, I believe anything is possible.
The Work Continues
As of last week, the Utah State Legislature approved $5.5 million in ongoing funding to support the establishment of the new Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus. This funding will enable the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah to expand medical education to Southern Utah with a home base in St. George.
Recruitment for the inaugural Southern Utah MD cohort will begin in the 2025-2026 academic year, marking a significant step toward strengthening the physician workforce throughout Utah.
