AAMC Reporter: July 2007

Rowing to the Next Adventure

Mount Sinai School of Medicine Dean Dennis Charney, M.D., negotiates scenic waterways by kayak.

Dennis Charney, M.D., dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is not someone who shies away from a challenge. Especially when competitive sports are involved. An acclaimed basketball player in high school, Charney switched over to crew as an undergrad and rowed avidly for many years.

Ten years ago, however, his rowing habit took a turn for the extreme when he discovered kayaking.

The volatile nature of the sport is what appeals to him, says Charney.

"You can be in different kinds of weather conditions, in remote areas, and you have to know how to respond to unpredictable situations," he says.

A self-proclaimed competition fanatic, Charney has participated in several kayak races in the past five years, including a three-day, 90-mile trek through the rivers of the Adirondack mountain range in September.

Kayaking has taken Charney and his friends and family to some of the most beautiful places in the world—the Maine coast, the Alaskan wilderness, the remote regions of South America. Seeing these areas from a kayak, he says, lets "me experience their beauty very close up."

When he's not in one of these exotic locales, you can find him kayaking on the Hudson River or Long Island Sound. Charney says his experience as a kayaker—school and more generally as a sportsman—is inextricably linked to his work as a medical school dean. Being able to perform effectively under the pressure of athletic competition has helped him cope with the challenges that he faces at work, he says. Teamwork is important as a dean, Charney adds, and the athletic experience draws on that.

"When you're out there kayaking in the middle of Patagonia, or off the coast of Maine, and you're with other people, you better work well together."

—Elissa Fuchs

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