Academic Surgery

“Elaine recruited me to my position at Creighton/Alegent. She was knowledgeable about the position as well as the health system in which I would be working. Her insights into the health system were accurate and insightful, so I had no surprises when I began the position. She did an outstanding job.”

Keith Clancy, Division Chief, Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Acute Care Surgery, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio

“I had the pleasure of working with Elaine during the time I was Director for the Department of Surgery at the University of Florida. Elaine worked diligently to provide an extensive quality list of candidates for faculty positions that we knew would be difficult recruits. During the process Elaine kept in contact frequently to gauge interest in candidates, and to inquire about any questions or concerns that my departmental hiring committee might have. She was always a delight to speak with, and made herself available to my schedule – frequently catching up in the evening hours. She was sensitive to both our timeline and finances. Elaine is a professional, and I would not hesitate to recommend her services.”

Barbara McNamee, Vice Chair of Administration, University of Miami, Miami, Florida

“We initially selected Elaine Auerbach and her firm, Kaye Bassman International for their inside knowledge and unique understanding of the marketplace in academic medicine. At the onset, Ms. Auerbach demonstrated flexibility in customizing the recruitment process, relationship and terms to meet our specific requirements and expectations. Although this was a complex and challenging search, Ms. Auerbach was successful in placing a top quality candidate that exceeded our expectations! Never wavering in level of commitment, she gained the respect of senior leadership of the organization. We could not be more pleased with the new incumbent to fill this strategic role of Program Director, Family Medicine Residency.”

Blythe Ann Rinaldi, Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, Mayo Clinic Health System

“The University of Texas – Dell Medical School embarked on an aggressive timeline to secure the Department Chair for Obstetrics and Gynecology. ... Eric Dickerson, Elaine Auerbach and the rest of the Kaye/Bassman team provided exceptional service and I am very pleased by the outcome of the search. I would highly recommend Kaye/Bassman International Corporation for any critical and/or time sensitive search you may have.”

Sue Cox, MD, Executive Vice Dean of Academics, Chair for the Department of Medical Education Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin

“I knew that filling our Medical Director position was going to be a challenge and recognized from our initial conversation that Elaine and Eric understood our needs, they saw our vision and there was a match with our styles. Fast forward, without a doubt I made a great decision to go with Kaye/Bassman. We worked extremely well together. They met and exceeded all my expectations and I am grateful for their support. Elaine did a lot of behind the scenes work in contacting people, had an extensive visit to our campus and I developed a trust. I never worried about lack of progress or types of candidates she was bringing in, which I appreciated. Elaine exceeded my expectations as she zoomed-in on the critical aspects of what we really needed. Reference checking was great because I trusted her experience and through our relationship I knew it would be a job well done.”

Jamie Shutter, Director, University Health Services University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

“The Kaye/Bassman Healthcare Team is extremely capable and handled one the largest accounts in the Dallas office. They had excellent client relationships and worked to deliver even the toughest of skills. The team was friendly, thoughtful, and respectful of coworkers.”

Mitch Byers, SPHR

“Elaine was head and shoulders above the other recruiters I worked with this interview season in several important ways. She is intelligent, curious, thorough, insightful, and knowledgeable. She had personally met the leadership and she had seen the facility with her own eyes. She asked probing questions that compelled me to articulate my rationale for the career decisions I had made so far. She made incredibly astute inferences about the way I think based on dry biographical data. I found her to be a gifted observer, a good listener, and a real student of human psychology. I felt prepared for many of her questions, but I remember struggling with a few that cut to the core of my convictions and assumptions. It was an invaluable exercise. It made me a better and more confident interviewee. That initial experience shaped my expectations for the rest of the interview trail, but I’m afraid everybody else fell woefully short.”

Bogachan Sahin, M.D., Ph.D., Cerebrovascular Fellow Department of Neurology, John Hopkins University School of Medicine Currently Faculty at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

“Recruiting great faculty is integral to having a successful academic Department of Surgery. Certain surgical subspecialties are in limited supply and are difficult to recruit because of various supply and demand issues. With that in mind we made an arrangement to work with Elaine Auerbach from Kaye/Bassman Associates to assist us in hiring additional faculty with Trauma/Critical Care and Burn Surgery expertise for Upstate University Hospital. Elaine spent a significant amount of time learning about our recruitment needs and helped us to recruit the surgical expertise we needed to develop a critical mass of faculty in this area. Within a few weeks she identified a significant number of potential faculty candidates. We worked with her to screen potential candidates and bring forth only best quality individuals for the position(s) we needed to fill. In summary, Elaine’s ability to identify and recruit helped us to meet critical work force issues we were facing in a timely fashion.”

Robert N. Cooney, MD, FACS, FCCM, Professor & Chairman Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Upstate Medical Center Syracuse, New York

“In my position as Department Chair of Surgery at the Nemours Children’s Clinic, I learned about Eric through his successful recruitment of two pediatric neurosurgeons at the local Children’s hospital. As we were unsuccessful with a former recruiting firm, we reached out to Mr. Dickerson to see if he can assist in a successful recruitment of several key surgical areas in our organization. I was immediately impressed with Mr. Dickerson in his organized approach and ambitious attitude in doing what was necessary to get the job done. We have been very pleased with Eric and he has been successful in filling many of our positions. We continue to work with him currently on additional faculty needs. ”

Gary D. Josephson, MD, MBA, FACS, FAAP, FACPE Chairman; Department of Surgery Nemours Children’s Clinic Associate Professor Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Affiliate Professor University of South Florida College of Medicine

“I would say I was very pleased with [Kaye/Bassman Academic Medicine]. I wanted to approach the task as a close relationship, and by setting up weekly sessions throughout the process to see where we all stood helped keep the search top of mind for both parties, which ensured getting the right person for the position. Some of the most beneficial things included the pre-work that the team did by getting a good sense of the important elements of who we were looking for, not just credentials and experience, but also personal strengths, motivations, and opportunities for improvement. The profiles you created based off these conversations were some of the most valuable tools much more tailored for this search. This process allowed us the opportunity to get the right “person on the bus” for this position and avoided presenting candidates to me that were not worth my time reviewing.”

Bryan Alsip, Executive Vice President, CMO University Health System