For 52 years, Dr. Sarah S. Donaldson deeply loved her work in Stanford Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology. She reveled in academic medicine and felt immensely proud to see her pediatric cancer patients go on to live full lives. The opportunities to advance the field of cancer treatment, build out the hospital’s pediatric services, and mentor her talented young colleagues made her faculty role the most gratifying work of her life.

All of which made the decision to retire feel like she was giving up what she held most dear. “It was like I had amputated my right arm,” said the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor Emerita. “I had become possessive of what I had because I loved it. It was the reason I got out of bed every morning, and I resisted retirement.”

But knowing she wanted to leave her beloved position at the top of her game, she began considering how to reinvent herself. There is a lot of support for navigating life’s earlier stages, Donaldson points out, but less for helping people thrive after a full and rewarding career. “The transition to retirement requires a lot of planning,” Donaldson said. “It’s the next leg of your lifetime journey. You have to plan for it like you plan for anything that’s important in your life, and those who don’t have more trouble than people who do.”

Donaldson became a retirement coach in Stanford Medicine’s New Beginning Program, signed up for workout programs, and joined the Stanford Emeriti/ae Council, book clubs, and a walking group. She also became a board member at a non-profit theater company, a chance to delve into the humanities after a career dominated by the sciences.

“I worried that somehow in retirement I was going to have all this time, but that hasn’t been the case,” Donaldson said. “I’m doing a lot of things I enjoy, and I’m taking time for myself, which I never used to do. You have to actively increase your circle so that you have more and more stimulation because otherwise, it’s going to wither away.”

Iris Litt, chair of the Emeriti/ae Council and associate dean for senior and emeriti/ae faculty at the SoM, said the senior academy can help create a community for people considering retirement. | L.A. Cicero

Untapped resource

This fall, the School of Medicine (SoM) and its Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) launched the Senior Academy at Stanford Medicine to support senior and retired School of Medicine faculty like Donaldson as they embark on their new life stage and to help them continue to contribute to the university community.  

“It provides opportunities for retired faculty to share with each other their own experiences and new ventures, thus exposing all of us to the wonder of this time in our lives,” said Iris Litt, chair of the Emeriti/ae Council, and associate dean for senior and emeriti/ae faculty at the SoM, a position created in 2022. “We can learn from each other, from these conversations, and unknown resources might arise, not to mention the support we naturally feel when sharing similar experiences.”

The academy is part of the New Beginnings Program, which the OAA created to respond to the needs of senior faculty in transition to their next life chapter, and retired and emeriti faculty.

The academy connects retired SoM faculty with opportunities for continued learning, teaching, mentoring, and service. It also helps retired faculty maintain their social and professional connections within the university. Retired faculty are an “untapped resource” who can serve as role models and provide retirement advice to senior faculty, and offer valuable mentorship and networking opportunities to faculty, trainees, and students, Litt said.

Frank M. Longo, the George E. and Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine and professor, by courtesy, of neurosurgery, is a member of the academy’s advisory committee which is composed of 16 active and retired faculty who advise on the development of post-retirement programs and policies.

“An important role of this program is to help people understand the many pathways, which are more complex than I realized, and what might be the best fit for them,” Longo said. “There’s so much energy, expertise, wisdom, and experience out there among faculty who have made this transition. 

“Particularly for Stanford, being in Silicon Valley, faculty are in an innovative, stimulating environment with involvement in various entities,” he continued. “It’s great for the university, and of course, it’s good for faculty members to have that continued connection.” 

The senior academy partners with university organizations such as Continuing Studies and has several committees developing opportunities based on people’s different interests. The academy collaborated with the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI) this summer to offer a special speaker series as a community-building opportunity with DCI Fellows, retired faculty, and others.

The Senior Academy at Stanford Medicine held a speaker series with the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute this summer. | Jayne Onyiohi Abraham 

‘Long overdue’ 

The launch of the senior academy represents a growing understanding of the professoriate’s needs, which have changed dramatically since the university’s founding when lifespans were far shorter, Litt said. Litt was inspired by work at some peer institutions to design the academy and incorporate survey data from Stanford’s senior and emeriti faculty. The senior academy also serves as a model that other schools at Stanford can replicate, Litt said.

SoM faculty spend significant time heavily focused on clinical care, research, and teaching, and the sudden loss of those activities in retirement can be disruptive, said SoM Vice Dean Linda Boxer. 

Surveys conducted at SoM and across Stanford in recent years indicate that retired faculty strongly crave ongoing connection and intellectual engagement with the university. The survey also found that faculty approaching the end of their career may refrain from discussing retirement with colleagues out of fear of being excluded from future activities.

“Many of our senior faculty members do not know when or how to think about retirement, and we were surprised to see in our survey that many of them had no one to speak with about retirement,” Boxer said, who added that the launch of the academy is “long overdue.”

“Many of our retired faculty have much to offer, and there is often no mechanism for their continued involvement with the Stanford community,” she said. “We’d like to change the culture and environment so that faculty members can begin to think about retirement and their ‘next opportunity’ early in their career.”