I recently had the privilege of joining a truly special episode of the Dean’s Chat podcast, hosted by the inimitable Dr. Jeffrey Jensen. This conversation was a reunion of sorts—an opportunity to reflect, reminisce, and reimagine the future of diabetic limb preservation with three close colleagues and friends: Dr. Lawrence Harkless, Dr. Lawrence Lavery, and Dr. John Steinberg.
🎧 Watch the full episode here:
📣 This episode is proudly sponsored by Bako Diagnostics
This episode of Dean’s Chat isn’t your typical roundtable. It’s a slice of history—an oral narrative tracing a shared lineage back to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where mentorship transformed into a movement, and where a common mission to reduce preventable amputations took root.
Together, we unpacked:
• The powerful ripple effect of mentorship and the mentor/mentee continuum that continues to shape generations of clinicians and researchers
• What it takes to build academic programs that don’t just treat disease, but redefine the standard of care
• Reflections on early days in diabetic foot care and how we collectively paved paths into academic health centers and beyond
• The joys and responsibilities of helping launch multi-generational careers in podiatric medicine and limb preservation
What struck me most in this conversation is the continuity—how values like humility, curiosity, and service continue to echo across institutions and time zones. This isn’t just a story of four doctors. It’s a story of a profession and its evolving promise.
If you care about mentorship, leadership, or simply want to hear from four people who have lived—and are still living—this mission every day, I invite you to tune in.
With gratitude to Dr. Jensen for his thoughtful moderation for making this episode possible.
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