{"id":118502,"date":"2024-04-29T09:06:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T14:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=118502"},"modified":"2025-04-17T13:28:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T18:28:34","slug":"board-of-trustees-brian-lein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/board-of-trustees-brian-lein\/","title":{"rendered":"Board of Trustees: Brian Lein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most children are enamored with superheroes, movie stars, and professional athletes. But not Brian Lein, MD. If you ask him who his childhood hero was, he\u2019ll tell you it was his pediatrician.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy older brother was born with a cleft lip and a cleft palate,\u201d Dr. Lein recalls, \u201cand my younger brother was born three-and-a-half months premature, which was a big deal in 1964 because they didn\u2019t have neonatal intensive care units back then. We spent a lot of time at the pediatrician\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctor had a profound effect on young Brian. \u201cHis name was Dr. Bob West,\u201d Dr. Lein says. \u201cI still remember what he looked like and what he sounded like. He had such compassion for my mom and dad. Because of the care he provided, I wanted to be just like him. So from the time I was 7 years old, I knew I wanted to be a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Dr. Lein never expected to be was a military doctor, but that\u2019s exactly what he became.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew nothing about the military,\u201d continues Dr. Lein, who grew up in New York near the United States Military Academy at West Point. \u201cI ran track all my life, and West Point was one of two places that had an indoor track for winter. We were up there running track and field one time and the track coach said to me, \u2018Would you be interested in coming to West Point?\u2019 I told him I wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to go there because I wanted to be a doctor, and he said, \u2018Oh, we have doctors that graduate from West Point.\u2019 And that\u2019s how I ended up in the Army.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from West Point, Dr. Lein went to medical school, then completed his residency in general surgery. At that point, he was planning his exit from the military. But then something life-changing happened: On Oct. 3, 1993, rebels shot down two Black Hawk helicopters that were part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The ensuing Battle of Mogadishu, also known as the Black Hawk Down incident, killed 18 American soldiers and wounded 73 others.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lein was stationed in Germany, where he was part of the medical team that cared for the wounded service members.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking care of those young men was probably the most significant event of my military life,\u201d says Dr. Lein, who decided to stay in the Army, in which he served 30 years as a physician and leader, retiring as a major general and chief of the Army Medical Corps.<\/p>\n

Now assistant director of health care administration at the Defense Health Agency (DHA), Dr. Lein wants to share what he\u2019s learned about medicine in the military with those outside it. It\u2019s what led him to join The Chicago School\u2019s Board of Trustees in 2023.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lein was drawn to The Chicago School because of its focus on mental health and diversity. \u201cI believe in what The Chicago School is doing,\u201d Dr. Lein says. \u201cThere\u2019s a massive gap in the diversity of mental health providers. By offering scholarships and setting up schools in areas that need them, The Chicago School is opening doors for a very diverse demographic to get into behavioral health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

From increased diversity comes increased representation, which is an essential salve for inherent bias in medicine, according to Dr. Lein.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something we see a lot in the military: If you\u2019re wearing a uniform and you\u2019re sitting across from a provider who isn\u2019t, there\u2019s an automatic distrust. You assume that person can\u2019t help you because they haven\u2019t been through the things you\u2019ve been through,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the same in a lot of racial and ethnic communities. When you speak the same language, have the same values, and were raised the same way, your ability to connect and influence the social determinants of health and well-being is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Lein believes his expertise will be particularly useful as The Chicago School pursues plans to establish an osteopathic medical school, the proposed Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really applaud the osteopathic profession because they\u2019re focused on holistic wellness, which is something I\u2019d like to support while I\u2019m on the Board,\u201d he says. \u201cMedicine isn\u2019t just about pieces and parts. The person sitting across from you is a human, and they\u2019re coming to you because they\u2019re sick or scared. You can\u2019t just treat the disease; you have to take care of the person.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most children are enamored with superheroes, movie stars, and professional athletes. But not Brian Lein, MD. If you ask him who his childhood hero was, he\u2019ll tell you it was his pediatrician. \u201cMy older brother was born with a cleft lip and a cleft palate,\u201d Dr. Lein recalls, \u201cand my younger brother was born three-and-a-half months premature, which was a big deal in 1964 because they didn\u2019t have neonatal intensive care units back then. We spent a lot of time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":118507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1033],"class_list":["post-118502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Brian Lein Joins The Chicago School Board of Trustees<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Military physician Dr. Brian Lein joins The Chicago School's Board of Trustees, bringing expertise in diversity, mental health, and holistic medicine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/board-of-trustees-brian-lein\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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