Transition from Boss to Beginner Posted on November 21, 2007 The path from clinician to researcher for Michael J. Ostacher (bio) meant re-assuming the role of mentee.

Making a transition from being a clinician and a clinician-administrator to research was somewhat dramatic for me, because I had been the director of addictions in an acting capacity for a large health system for a couple of years. And then I was the medical director for behavioral health for a big, inner-city multi-service center. And so I had these leadership positions where I was the boss.

And when I went into research, I entered as somebody who was completely naive about it. And so I entered from the beginning, and I didn’t have any funding myself. I didn’t have any experience in doing it. I barely knew how to ask questions that were reasonable ones to study.

And so making that transition was somewhat dramatic, because I had to go from a place where I was in charge of a lot of things to being in a place where I had to basically make a little space for myself and listen to other people and be mentored along.

So here I was 10 years out of my residency. I wouldn’t say well-developed in my clinical career, but pretty far along. And that was going back to the beginning. So I was doing 10 years after residency what my colleagues were doing when they were either still residents or were just finishing their residency. But I went from being the boss to being an employee, and that was a big change.

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