Building Connections

Dr. Kathleen Foley (M.D. ’69) has been bringing people together throughout her expansive career as a specialist in pain management and palliative care for cancer patients. As the new president of the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association, she also focuses on building connections, uniting past and present and working to strengthen relationships between alumni.

“I almost see it as a responsibility,” Dr. Foley says. “I benefited immensely from being a student at Weill Cornell Medicine and being on its faculty. This is an opportunity to interface in different ways with and highlight extraordinary alumni who are leaders in medicine and clinical practice throughout the country.”

Among the support the alumni association provides are scholarships, mentoring programs and funding for student groups with missions including human rights and health care for uninsured and underinsured patients. Dr. Foley’s goals as president are to reach out to alumni who have lost contact and expand involvement with existing members. The pandemic brought in new voices as alumni from around the country became comfortable with connecting through video conferencing, but also made the kind of relationship building that happens in person more challenging. Dr. Foley hopes to build on the technological success while further developing those personal ties: “It’s about reconnecting as well as engaging.”

When Dr. Foley began her education, she was one of only five women in her class. In most recent years, more than half of Weill Cornell Medicine’s entering classes have been female. It’s just one of the profound changes in diversity and inclusion that the alumni association works to push forward in tandem with the institution, says Dr. Foley, who has served on the alumni association board and committees for two decades. “We would like for Weill Cornell Medicine to be seen as having exceptional faculty, training exceptional students, who lead in whatever field they choose and at whatever level they choose to work.”