A Commitment to Service Three Generations Long — Peter W. McCauley, Sr.
My time at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine constructed the foundation for my path in medicine and guided my development of the expertise necessary for clinical and administrative healthcare. After my graduation in 1986, I completed my pediatric residency at Wyler Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago, now the Comer Children’s Hospital. It was during residency that my passion for administrative healthcare initially surfaced. I really enjoyed the training program and admired my chief resident, James Mitchell, MD. My time there made me feel like I could tackle both the clinical and administrative tasks required to be successful in multiple roles.
The year my daughter was born, I became the medical director of the Physician Hospital Organization at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. After about two years, I had the desire to return to clinical practice; thus, in 1998, I resumed pediatric practice at a federally funded community health center in Roseland. Since then, I have refined my abilities in healthcare administration and I currently serve as Medical Officer for Cigna Health Care — blending my dedication to medicine and my interest in healthcare administration. In this role I employ my experience in clinical healthcare leadership in the management of physician-executives across the nation.
The University of Chicago not only holds a special place in my heart due to its role in the development of my own career, but the way in which it connects my family across generations. In 1960, my mother earned a master’s degree from UChicago School of Social Sciences, and, years after my own graduation, my daughter, Leslie, now attends Pritzker. We are the first Black father-daughter pair to attend the medical school, which makes me so proud.
Despite our respective journeys in healthcare converging at Pritzker, Leslie has paved her own unique path to medicine. During her undergraduate studies at Brown University, she was involved in a program unifying STEM and the arts. There, Leslie had the opportunity to teach dance to patients with Parkinson’s Disease. Looking back, she feels that it was transformative to see people go through an alternative process of healing and to realize that medicine encompasses more than surgery or seeing patients in the clinic.
Her love of the communities of Chicago as well as the mentorship she received early-on led her to Pritzker. Serving the same community that raised her is also very important. Leslie identifies her interest in reproductive health as influencing where her journey may lead her next. Recently, she received a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in public health in addition to her MD degree.
This cross-generational legacy makes me very proud — not only of my family, but of the way the school has changed over the years. My Pritzker class had three Black students — Leslie, on the other hand, describes that her class has nineteen Black students and that the diversity in many different domains has increased at Pritzker. My mother is deceased, but I know how proud she would be of her descendants and what we have accomplished. These varied connections to UChicago are very dear to me and my family.
To read the original profile by The University of Chicago, click here
Peter W. McCauley, Sr. has a 30 year track record of profitable, inclusive health care leadership. He is a well-respected, actively practicing pediatrician serving Chicago’s far south side for over 23 years while working closely with the Cigna Foundation to successfully direct significant financial donations to multiple organizations serving the residents of Chicago’s south side. His expertise in value-based health care, combined with the ability to lead and influence provider groups and hospital systems to adopt this reimbursement model vs. standard fee for service, helps to improve quality outcomes for patients while making health care more affordable for all.
