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    GBA Moderated Call — Behind the Numbers: Comparing SOM and Department Staffing Frameworks

    The Group on Business Affairs (GBA) Data and Benchmarking Committee provided an in-depth look at how medical schools and clinical departments structure and staff their administrative teams. This session reviewed data and created space for peer-to-peer discussion on emerging staffing models.

    The discussion started with a presentation on findings from a June 2025 AAMC data snapshot, Infrastructure Review: Administrative Staff Head Count Per Full Time Faculty at U.S. Medical Schools (PDF). This data provides a national view of administrative staffing patterns and serves as a foundation for comparing approaches across institutions.

    Following the data overview, speakers shared real world examples of academic staffing frameworks — one from a school of medicine perspective and one from a clinical department perspective — highlighting similarities, differences, and the operational considerations that shape each model.

    Speakers

    Alex Geboy, MS
    Research Director
    AAMC

    Susan Kline, MS, MBA
    Vice Chair, Administration and Finance
    Department of Pediatrics
    Duke University School of Medicine

    Richard Nuttall, MBA
    Vice President and Vice Dean for Finance and Administration
    Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
    The University of Texas at San Antonio

    Materials