medical education. In addition, she was a woman in a predominantly male field.
Although she sometimes refers to herself as a “Celtic warrior,” during this battle
she couldn’t be in full warrior mode. We had to build the infrastructure and hire
the people to make things happen. She had to recruit allies. She had to play nice,
even when she might be spitting mad. She made the most of being the best-informed
person in the room and operating behind the scenes to undermine opponents’
harebrained schemes (such as the chiropractic school you’ll read about).
And throughout, she had to make sure she didn’t make mistakes.
Myra Hurt outlasted her adversaries. While battling through the dark days
seeking accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, she
rallied the students with this feisty vow: “We are going to kick the LCME’s ass!”
And because we did, her new paradigm for medical education is producing the
kinds of physicians that Floridians need. •
6 | Breaking the Mold