Three faculty members offer words of wisdom at the third annual event to celebrate UMB’s new academic year and the latest cohort of Distinguished University Professors.

Photo: Professor Kimberly Lumpkins of the School of Medicine delivers her speech, which was titled “The Will to Fail,” at the Faculty Convocation on Sept. 12.

Kimberly Lumpkins, MD, MBA, professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), turned the phrase “failure is not an option” on its head during her speech Sept. 12 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) third annual Faculty Convocation, which drew a crowd of 500 to Koester’s Lot on West Lexington Street.

In fact, Lumpkins told her fellow UMB faculty members that they should fail — over and over again — because striving for perfection is a futile task.

“Every single person in this audience — regardless of what profession or school you represent — is accustomed to success,” Lumpkins said. “But perfectionism is a weak foundation for life, because in life you can do absolutely everything right, and it can still just go terribly, terribly wrong. And that burden sits with you when you question your worth, you question your competence, and you maybe even question your profession.

“But from one recovering perfectionist to another, I have one charge for you: I want you to fail. I want you to fail often. And I want you to fail gloriously. I want you to nominate yourself for committees, submit for long-shot grants, and throw your name in the hat for opportunities that you don’t really have a chance of getting.”

(Watch a video about the convocation and see a photo gallery below.)

In the same vein, Lumpkins challenged audience members to try a hobby that they might be terrible at doing, recounting how, at age 37, she took up circus classes despite not necessarily having the ability to do flips or walk a tightrope.

“I had not even touched my toes before this class,” she said. “I had no hope of being good. I had no hope of being competent. But I had to process that failure every single week and had to sit with it every single week so that I could have fun.

“So what does that look like for you? Is it singing? Is it dancing? Art? Sports? What is it? I want you to go do it. I want you to embrace failure. I want you to feel it, touch it, taste it — to make it utterly mundane and familiar. I want you to be able to look in the mirror and say, ‘I am not my last performance. My value is not defined by what happened in that courtroom or in that hospital ward, or what happened with my last grant submission.’ ”

Lumpkins added that faculty members should not consider UMB to be a graduate or professional school, but rather “a university that is dedicated to helping people.”

“By choosing to become faculty here, you have chosen a life of purpose, but the sacrifice that comes with that is the darkness when you fail,” she said. “Because no matter how hard you try, you cannot be — and you will not be — perfect. As Leonard Cohen said, ‘Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’

“My colleagues, embrace those cracks and banish your darkness.”

Big Sisters and Public Trust

Lumpkins was joined by two other faculty speakers, Sydnee Chavis, DMD, MS, clinical assistant professor, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and Andrew Coop, PhD, MA, professor and associate dean for graduate programs, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Chavis spoke about growing up with her older sister, Brandy, who has cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities, and how she didn’t perceive her as different until the family was out to dinner one night and a young girl said, “What’s wrong with her?”

“It was beyond me at the time, though I realize now that this girl was raised without the gift of having a Brandy as a big sister,” said Chavis, whose clinical interests include providing accessible dental care for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “This encounter sparked a flurry of questions. ‘Is something wrong with Brandy?’ No, there’s nothing wrong with her. Brandy does some things differently. She does some things well and some not as well as other people.”

She talked about how her 5-year-old son perceives Brandy, simply adoring his aunt, mimicking her, and looking forward to seeing her.

“Jordy doesn’t see his aunt as ‘less than’ or as having something wrong with her,” Chavis said. “He sees her, genuinely and unabashedly, as his adoring aunt who he wants to be like and with. I want you to see my sister the way my son sees her, or the way my 5-year-old self saw her — as someone who is recognized as able by her humanity, not diminished by her disability.”

In his speech, Coop pointed out that all of the faculty members assembled could be considered experts in their fields and lamented that public trust in experts is at an all-time low. He cited studies that showed only 16 percent of the public trusted the federal government and that 65 percent do not trust recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To combat this lack of trust, he suggested that subject experts need to have not just knowledge, but also two other key traits: integrity and benevolence.

“If you don’t have integrity and benevolence, which I define as care and concern for society, you are not going to be perceived as an expert, and public trust is just not going to be there,” Coop said.

He recounted teaching a class on advocacy when a student interrupted and said, “I cannot take the time off to go down to D.C. and chit-chat with [U.S. Sen.] Mitt Romney like you can. I just can’t do this.”

“I was not showing benevolence to that student’s abilities,” Coop said. “I was talking about what I wanted to talk about, what I thought was cool: talking to Mitt Romney. I was not talking to the student. So I want to give you all a call to action: Listen to others, especially outside your circle. Think about the audience. And the third one: Other people need to be heard — listen to them, and make sure that they are heard.”

‘Excellence on Full Display’

Before the speakers, UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, and Provost and Executive Vice President Roger J. Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA, opened the event with remarks and recognition of UMB deans, administrators, and guests from the University of Maryland Medical System and the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. 

“The excellence of our University is on full display today, highlighting our scholars, educators, and researchers,” Jarrell said. “You also will see that UMB’s commitment to this community is on full display — the commitment to our students, to the diversity of our campus, to our patients and clients, as well as to the citizens of Baltimore and Maryland.”

Said Ward: “We gather in the spirit of camaraderie to mark the start of a new academic year and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our faculty. It is often said that the strength of an institution lies in its faculty. And UMB is no exception. Our faculty’s excellence propels us forward, making this celebration all the more significant.”

Jarrell and Ward also recognized five members of the 2024 cohort of Distinguished University Professors, the highest appointment that can be bestowed on a faculty member at UMB:

• Richard Boldt, JD, T. Carroll Brown Professor of Law, Francis King Carey School of Law
• Susan G. Dorsey, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor, Department of Organizational Systems and Adult Health, School of Nursing
• Steven Kittner, MD, MPH, professor, Department of Neurology, UMSOM
• William Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, FASTRO, professor and Isadore & Fannie Schneider Foxman Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, and senior associate dean for clinical affairs, UMSOM
• David Weber, PhD, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and director, Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics, UMSOM

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, CARTI Endowed Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; director, Center for Advanced Research Training and Innovation (CARTI); and former dean, UMSOM, is part of the 2024 cohort but was unable to attend the ceremony and will be recognized next year.

(Read more about the 2024 Distinguished University Professors.)