Mayo Alumni Magazine 2012 Spring - MC4409-0312 - Mayo Clinic

Advancing
An Ideal
In his new role as Mayo’s leader in Arizona,
Wyatt Decker, M.D., is poised to help
Mayo Clinic shape the future of health care.
Wyatt Decker, M.D.
Wyatt Decker arrived in Rochester, Minn., in 1986 to
embark on a medical career. Had he not selected Mayo
Medical School for his education, his father — a physician
himself — might have argued against his career choice.
“My father felt many medical schools were focused less
on the needs of the patient and more on acquiring research
grants, while their doctors obsessed over building their
careers,” says Dr. Decker (MMS ’90, I ’93), recounting his
father’s views of increasingly selfish motivations in the field
of medicine.
Twenty-five years later, Dr. Decker is poised to defend
and advance the ideals dear to his father’s heart. In
May 2011, Dr. Decker was named vice president and CEO
of Mayo Clinic in Arizona. “Mayo Clinic, as a nationally
Vice President and CEO, Mayo Clinic, Arizona
Consultant, Department of Emergency Medicine,
Mayo Clinic, Arizona
Professor of Emergency Medicine, College
of Medicine, Mayo Clinic
Postgraduate: M.B.A., Kellogg School of
Management, Northwestern University
Residency: Emergency Medicine, Denver Health
and Hospitals, Denver; Internal Medicine, Mayo
School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester
Medical school: Mayo Medical School
Undergraduate: University of California Santa Cruz
18 Mayo Alumni