Beloved Department of Medicine Faculty Member Receives Endowed Professorship

His gift and passion for teaching, excellence as a clinician, and his leadership and commitment to medical education at Georgetown led to the investiture of Charles A.
His gift and passion for teaching, excellence as a clinician, and his leadership and commitment to medical education at Georgetown led to the investiture of Charles A. "Chip" Read, MD, FCCP (M'86, R'88, W'91) as the inaugural holder of the Allan J. Goody, MD Endowed Professorship in Medical Education.

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(October 5, 2018) — After his first day on campus at Georgetown in 1988, the late Allan J. Goody, MD (C’92, M’96, R’00, W’02), told his mother Diane, “Mom, this is the place. I love this place. I want to go here.” While Goody passed away in 2011, his legacy will live on through an endowed professorship recently awarded to Charles A. “Chip” Read, MD, FCCP (M’86, R’88, W’91).

Inside the grandiose walls of Riggs Library in Healy Hall on the evening of September 20, Read’s friends, family and colleagues celebrated his investiture as the inaugural recipient of the Allan J. Goody, MD Endowed Professorship in Medical Education.

As a professor of medicine and surgery, Read is known for his high level of compassion and empathy for students and their success. He takes great joy in teaching students and residents and feels a personal responsibility in ensuring they master the material he presents, according to Richard E. Waldhorn, MD (R’79, R’81), a professor of medicine in the division of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. 

“Chip not only is a wonderful educator, but a great leader and a great clinician,” said Edward B. Healton, MD, MPH, executive vice president for health sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center and executive dean of the School of Medicine.

The Apotheosis of a Lifetime Hoya

After earning degrees in computer science and chemistry, Goody continued to Georgetown University School of Medicine, then stayed at Georgetown for his residency, a fellowship in nephrology and as a faculty member — spanning over 20 years.

During this time, resiliency is an attribute Goody personified. His kidneys failed for the first time when he was only 11 years old, which led to his first kidney transplant. He received another one during medical school. That one failed too, causing him to be on peritoneal dialysis through what would already be a grueling two-year fellowship.

Read, who also serves as vice chairman of inpatient medicine for the department of medicine and director of adult critical care at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, met Goody when he was seeing patients at DC General Hospital and Goody was a second-year medical student learning how to do physical diagnosis. After earning the respect of his colleagues and peers and winning the Paul Wilner Award for being an outstanding teaching fellow, and being inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Goody would go on to join Georgetown’s faculty in 2003.

“He would tell you he was happiest when he was making rounds talking with residents and students. He used to love that,” his father recalled.

By endowing a professorship in Goody’s name, his family is continuing his legacy, entrusting Read and all subsequent holders of the professorship to share Goody’s impact and passion for teaching and scholarship.

‘A Diamond in the Rough’

After attending the University of Virginia, Read went on to Georgetown for medical school and stayed for an internship and residency in internal medicine. It was the strong guidance of Sol Katz, MD (M’39, H’78), who recognized Read as a “diamond in the rough,” Waldhorn recalled.

As the former Nehemiah and Naomi Cohen Chair in Pulmonary Disease Research and a professor of pulmonary medicine, Katz helped Read rise to join Georgetown’s faculty in 1991. Read would later develop a strong interest in the newly developing field of interventional pulmonology, and went on to pioneer the development of the interventional pulmonology program.

He gained a secondary appointment in the department of surgery and became director of the adult critical care program. His excellence in teaching has led to so many Golden Apple Awards, which honors faculty who have demonstrated exceptional qualities as an educator, that he has received Golden Orchard designation.

In addition, Read has received the Laurence Kyle award for excellence in house staff education, the Sol Katz Society Award for Teaching Excellence, the Kaiser Permanente Award for Exemplary Dedication to Medical Student Teaching, and induction into the MAGIS Society of Master Teachers in 2014.

“I’m very grateful to my family for coming to witness all of this,” said Read. Having instilled in him values of excellence and perseverance, Read’s father was born on an Anacostia farm, worked in the oil and ice businesses and later attended college on the GI Bill after serving in World War II. He would go on to become a successful Wall Street lawyer.

“The reason you all are here is that you all are connected to Allan and you are committed to the education that Allan was committed to. We will carry on Allan’s wishes, will carry on his name, and will remember him,” Read said.

Seren Snow 
GUMC Communications