nboarding is no small task for the person who takes the helm of one of UF’s largest colleges, overseeing 29 research and clinical departments, more than 1,700 faculty, 1,100 students and 900 residents and fellows, and a research enterprise that attracts more federal funding than most of the state’s other universities.

Sandwiched between introductory meetings with her college chairs and hospital leadership, the 10th dean of the UF College of Medicine — and the first woman to hold this role — quickly navigated several stops across the UF Health academic health center campus with a photographer in tow to capture official portraits snapped from a number of vantage points. The pace of the day, however, was nothing new for Koch, MD, MS, MBA, nor is her ability to see opportunities from multiple angles. Her academic medicine career was built on her ability to tackle herculean efforts with analytical precision, and she works fast.

In just a few short weeks at UF, Koch spoke to hundreds of students, faculty and alumni across the country through nearly a dozen Zoom town hall meetings. She hired a chief of staff and three project managers. And she got to work building the framework for what she plans to accomplish as dean.

“Her energy level is endless,” said David R. Nelson, MD, senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. “That energy and her passion are what give wings to her vision for raising the standards of quality and patient-centered care.”

For Koch, myriad factors influenced her decision to accept Nelson’s offer to lead the College of Medicine and help shape its future.

“After my first visit to Gainesville, I was so impressed by what I saw that I immediately went to my dean and said, ‘They have everything you could want, right there,’” Koch recalled. “UF really is an intersection of innovation. We have enormous opportunities for crossdisciplinary collaboration among so many high-caliber colleges all committed to scientific discovery.”

Koch comes to UF with plenty of experience taking complex organizations to greater heights. As a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist nationally known for clinical outcomes research in cardiac surgery, transfusions and quality of life, she led the department of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine as its chair for six years. During that time, the department held steady among the top five funded academic anesthesiology departments in the U.S., and it has been ranked the No. 1 anesthesiology program by U.S. News & World Report for the last three years.

In addition to her role as a department chair, she served as anesthesiologist-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, chaired the hospital’s Medical Board, sat on the Medical Executive Leadership Committee for the Johns Hopkins Health System and joined the Board of Governors Clinical Practice Association for Johns Hopkins Medicine.

“UF Health has much in common with Johns Hopkins Medicine, and I am so appreciative of the confidence UF has demonstrated by affording me this opportunity to push the boundaries in research, education and clinical care,” Koch said.

Prior to joining Johns Hopkins in 2014, Koch practiced at the Cleveland Clinic for 22 years while serving in numerous roles in research, education, administration and medical operations throughout the organization.

“Dr. Koch has such a distinguished record of visionary leadership as well as scholarly accomplishments,” Nelson said. “Her demonstrated excellence in academic health and laser focus on integrating research and education into the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care convinced me and the search committee that she was the right person for the job.”

Julie Johnson, PharmD, dean of the UF College of Pharmacy and co-chair of the search committee for the new dean, said the committee was impressed with Koch’s record of strategic leadership at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

“Her broad range of health system leadership roles would seem to set her up well to be able to help elevate the UF College of Medicine to new heights,” Johnson said.

Kicking off at a sprint

Koch took over as dean on Jan. 11. By March 1, she had launched an all-inclusive strategic planning initiative to provide a road map to help guide the College of Medicine through the next five years. The planning involves a community-driven approach, heavily informed by input and involvement from people across the college, with five distinct groups identified to provide their perspectives: faculty, learners, trainees, administration and advanced practice providers, or APPs.

“I call this grassroots strategic planning,” Koch said. “We are going to the front lines and asking, ‘What do we need to do to get to where we want to go?’ and using that feedback to shape the discussion and our path forward.”

Koch narrowed the plan to seven priorities, or pillars, developed initial vision statements for each pillar and began surveying thousands of people within the five groups to gain their input — all before she had been on the job a full two months.

The seven pillars that direct the plan’s focus are research; patient care; education; people; diversity, inclusion and health care equity; system integration; and value.

“With respect to education, we plan to tailor the programs to the individual student, maximizing their strengths and potential,” Koch said. “Research will be the means by which we support clinical care — improving the quality of care, reducing unnecessary care, improving access to care and caring for the caregiver.”

In the areas of system integration and value, Koch brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her leadership roles with two of the nation’s leading health systems. She understands the potential for expanding UF Health’s reach beyond Gainesville and the need to ensure best practices for cost-efficient, high-quality care across the entire system, with no exceptions.

“UF Health and the College of Medicine are wonderful brands and we lead the state as an academic health care provider,” she said. “There are ways to ensure we are providing uniform care across the system, creating efficiencies and protecting those brands.”

Nelson said Koch was brought on board just as UF Health undergoes significant expansion.

“We are partnering with UF Health Jacksonville to develop a plan to open a regional medical school campus, where students spend their third and fourth year in Jacksonville, and we are developing innovative residencies at Central Florida Health,” Nelson said. “We will also grow our clinical reach along the I-95 corridor, in The Villages, and in Orlando and Tampa sometime in the future.”

With clinical growth comes the ability to expand the College of Medicine’s education and research opportunities.

“I look at growth through the lens of educational strategy for our learners and expanded research populations for our scientists,” Koch said.

The people factor

As Koch told her former dean following her first visit to Gainesville, the UF College of Medicine has a lot of good things already in place — like the longstanding Office for Diversity and Health Equity, led by UF Health pediatrician Donna Parker, MD ’90.

“That told me about UF’s culture and how the college embraces diversity and inclusion by recognizing that it’s better for all of us and our patients when we educate, learn, provide care and do research with diverse teams,” Koch said. “For that reason, one of the strategic pillars is devoted to diversity, inclusion and health equity.”

The people pillar applies to professional development for faculty, students and staff, as well as the increasingly salient issue of wellness.

“We need to measure resilience and well-being and grow activities to meet the needs of our college community,” Koch said. “We are working on a research-based well-being app to help our care providers assess themselves and their states of mind. The goal is to enhance the joy in medicine to avoid burnout among our health care professionals.”

Koch becomes more familiar with UF and the Gainesville community each day. She has already received the important lesson on the approved method for doing the Gator chomp (always right over left). On her rare days off, she discovers a new hiking trail or a new place to get a great cup of coffee. And as a fly-fishing enthusiast who enjoys tying her own flies, she is slowly gathering information about North Central Florida’s freshwater fish population.

“UF has such a great culture and so many neat things within the community,” she said. “I now feel like it’s my culture.”