Victoria Fang, MD, has been appointed as the medical director for Primary Care and Population Health, effective July 1, 2020. In this capacity, Fang will also serve as the UW Neighborhood Clinic Trustee on the UW Physician Board of Trustees. She will assume the role formally held by Peter McGough, MD, who is retiring from his position as medical director for UW Neighborhood Clinics after 18 years of service.
Fang has been with UW Medicine for 19 years, working in internal medicine and serving as a clinic chief at the UW Neighborhood Federal Way Clinic and, most recently, as an associate medical director for the UW Neighborhood Clinics.
Q&A with Victoria Fang
Q: What brought you to UW Medicine?
A: Before medical school I wanted to see more of the country outside my provincial Northeast corner. I had never been west of the Mississippi, so I took a job in Los Angeles in a lab studying diabetes and aging. And here I am, decades later, a primary care internist involved with the care of patients with diabetes and aging.
But my husband is the reason I came to UW Medicine 19 years ago. He runs a bacterial pathogenesis research laboratory at UW and is the medical director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Harborview. We have two children: My daughter is a freelance animation artist and my son will be starting medical school this year.
Q: Why are you excited about your new role as medical director for the UW Neighborhood Clinics?
A: Primary Care and Population Health is appealing because our impact is so broad. We have the privilege of creating a medical home for every patient and interfacing with every community and specialty.
I am particularly excited about coming into the role of medical director at this time when Primary Care and Population Health are recognized as the foundation of a healthy medical enterprise.
2020 is also the first year that our clinical faculty at the UW Neighborhood Clinics are employed not only by UW Physicians but also by the School of Medicine. The opportunity for expanding teaching opportunities and building relationships with the School of Medicine departments is exciting.
Q: How would you describe your leadership style?
A: I fully believe that teams of people with diverse backgrounds, expertise and styles are most able to come up with the best processes and solutions. It’s natural to gravitate to ideas that resonate with your own, but that’s something I am striving to watch out for and challenge.
When I hear myself saying, “I wouldn’t do it that way,” I want to pay particular attention, because here is an idea that I wouldn’t have thought of but might be exactly what is needed. A good leader wants to stir up the ideas and energy throughout the organization.
Q: What’s it like starting this new position during the COVID-19 pandemic?
A: It is exciting to come on board to the medical director role in the wake of COVID-19 and UW Medicine showing just how creative and agile it can be.
We’ve seen lots of pets and children photobombing our Primary Care administration Zoom meetings. My cats Teddy and Boo Boo are definitely doing their part to ask the vital question: How can Primary Care leadership help get more kibble into their bowls?
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: My guilty pleasure is reading or watching sci-fi, particularly when the whole universe is at stake and the unlikely heroes save the day.
