Dr. Victoria Kaprielian, a founder of Campbell’s med school, retires July 30, leaving lasting legacy

July 25, 2024

Dr. Victoria Kaprielian got up from her computer, walked to her desk and settled in.

Ready to talk. About growing up, her career in medicine and her role in establishing the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Campbell University. 

About her legacy.

Kaprielian, associate dean for Faculty Development and Medical Education, professor of Family Medicine, will officially retire July 30, although she'll remain in the Triangle and continue to have a role at the med school.

Kaprielian had much to talk about, but the conversation with her visitor began with a simple, seemingly personal and unconnected, question: How was Armenia?

Kaprielian, who is ethnic Armenian, makes regular trips to the small democratic country, a former Soviet republic landlocked by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran. 

Her grandparents escaped Armenia during the Ottoman genocide in World War I, when, "in early 1915, the Young Turk regime rounded up hundreds of Armenians and hanged many of them in the streets of Istanbul, before beginning the genocidal deportation of most of the Armenian population to the desert, in which up to a million died or were murdered en route," writes Yale University.

Kaprielian, who grew up outside Queens in Nassau County, New York, feels a strong connection to Armenia, where she does medical outreach in a state still struggling economically after it separated from the Soviet Union in 1991. 

As Kaprielian talks in her office at the med school, a small Armenian flag behind her evidence of those sentimental ties.

"My parents never were able to go there, but I have a very strong ethnic identity, and the first time I was able to go it really was a special experience for me," she says. "When I go there, I feel like I'm going home."

She plans to devote even more time to her work in Armenia, where medical schools are still largely built on the Soviet model.

"They do very good book-learning, but they don't get a lot of practical training. And the healthcare system, like the U.S. healthcare system, is lacking in a primary care base. The primary care practices are often viewed as just triage. You go to the primary care office to get sent to the right specialists, but there are no specialists in the provinces."

Those specialists, she says, are concentrated in the major cities, Yerevan and Gyumri.

"So, there's a lack of access to care for the people out in the provinces, and those are also the people who don't have a lot of money."

In many ways not unlike rural, sparsely populated places throughout the U.S. and, speaking esoterically, eastern North Carolina.

A new nonprofit, Health for Armenia, trains primary care doctors on becoming leaders and change agents. As part of that, Kaprielian is part of a pilot program, its first cohort of 10 starting this year.

She quickly volunteered to help with the initiative, which is similar to the Primary Care Champions fellowship program at Campbell. It will use a curriculum similar to and borrowed from the Master of Health Professions Education (MHPE) program, which Kaprielian developed and guided.

Kaprelian earned her degree as a medical doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles. She was a resident in Family Medicine at the Duke-Watts Family Medicine Residency Program in Durham and returned to UCLA as clinician-teacher fellow. She then returned to Durham, where she served in a variety of roles, including vice chair for education, and she continues to serve as a professor emerita at the Duke University School of Medicine. 

Her accomplishments are numerous and diverse, building blocks of a long career dedicated to helping people, caring for people. Learning and progressing. Always getting better.

For 10 years at Duke, she ran programs focusing on quality improvement and patient safety. At Campbell, Kaprielian taught courses on patient safety and quality.

"I've been a passionate proponent of patient safety, ongoing improvement and learning organizations ever since. QI is a dominant theme in the MHPE program - all of the graduates do at least one year-long practice improvement initiative, and many of them do two."

Her most-cited publication is an Academic Medicine piece published shortly after coming to Campbell, Kaprielian, VS, Silberberg M, McDonald MA, et al - A Competency Map Approach to Education for Population Health.

"I advocated that we needed to address public and population health in the (med school) curriculum and designed and taught the medical student course with the former Harnett County Health director, the late John Rouse."

Kaprielian came to Campbell full-time in 2013 but in 2011 worked as a consultant as the medical school was forming. In that role she helped develop the curriculum, working with, among many others, founding Dean Dr. John Kauffman, current Dean Dr. Brian Kessler,and Dr. Michael P. Mahalik, now vice dean for Academic Affairs.

"I came here because, as a curriculum designer, you don't often get an opportunity to build a school from the ground up," she says. "It was a really exciting opportunity that, as a family physician, (Campbell was) a school that wanted to train physicians to serve North Carolina, especially the people who weren't traditionally well-served.

"I'm certainly proud of the fact that I played a role in creating this whole thing, absolutely, and I'm thrilled to have interacted with so many altruistic, holistic-thinking, future doctors."

A primary mission of Campbell's medical school is just that - reaching out, caring for the underserved. People living in rural areas, people who lack access to primary care or don't have the means of getting it.

An idea - a calling, really - Kaprielian holds close to her heart. A calling that can neither be discounted nor neglected, even as more and more students look to pursue other medical specialties.

Focus on family medicine, she says. Focus on the mission. On things such as training and developing primary care physicians. Training them as leaders. Promoting programs such as the aforementioned Master of Health Professions Education online program. The novel MHPE program, which was the only one of its kind in North Carolina but is now on hiatus, offered clinicians of all disciplines a master's degree focused on leadership, change management, curriculum design and teaching skills.

"The joy of my career has been creating new things," Kaprielian says. "Perhaps the frustration of my career is that most of them have vanished once I've moved on. … The MHPE program has been my baby, and it's actually what I wanted to do years ago back at Duke. I'm thrilled that I actually got to do it, and I hope that it may be resurrectable somewhere."

Kim Stabingas is director of Experiential Education and an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. Now overseeing students in their clinical years, Stabingas graduated from the MHPE program in 2021.

Kaprielian's retirement, she says, marks the end of an era defined by profound guidance and unwavering support during her own leadership journey.

"Throughout my time in the MHPE program, her wisdom has been a steady inspiration, even through the challenges and uncertainty navigating a pandemic. She possessed an ability to impart knowledge with both patience and passion, making every session in the program a transformative experience," Stabingas says.

"She involved content experts when appropriate, and this program she developed allowed me to have a deeper understanding of empathy, resilience and fundamental qualities of effective leadership."

Dr. Snežana Petrović, associate professor of Physiology at the medical school, lauded Kaprielian's work and dedication to the MHPE program. Obtaining the federal grant to establish the program, Petrović said, was one of Kaprielian's greatest contributions to the medical school, Campbell University, graduate medical education and primary care in North Carolina.

"The commitment and resilience with which she sustained and grew the program resulted in a whole network of educational enthusiasts who graduated from the program equipped with the practical know-how in many aspects of medical education, be it assessment, accreditation, leadership, development of new programs, instructional methodologies or quality improvement," Petrović said.

"The ramifications of the program and this network will trickle down to many students, residents and physicians and, ultimately, (to the) quality of healthcare in North Carolina for years to come."

Education is a passion for Kaprielian, whose mother taught first-grade.

"Training clinicians to be leaders and teachers has been such a joy," she says. "I've seen our graduates do such great things, many of them within Campbell. I know (the MHPE program) had a strong influence on the people who were in it, at least, and that influence will continue."

The knowledge and skills Kaprielian has imparted to students and colleagues will, too, carry on. For past and future students at Campbell, at Duke and UCLA. For practicing and aspiring physicians in Armenia.

For all the patients she has touched

"Her retirement is bittersweet, and I celebrate her well-deserved rest," Stabingas says. "Her legacy will live in decisions I make and every mentorship opportunity I undertake. I want to ensure that her impact continues to shape not just my journey but also the journeys of those I have the privilege to lead and mentor because of her."

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