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ISSUE NO. 07 · SEPTEMBER 2026 |
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WELCOME (OR WELCOME BACK!)
It has been a jam-packed two weeks.
I caught up with an old residency friend for Happy Hour, had a fun game day with the Williams family, and saw Sara Bareilles on her "Good Grief" tour. Lesson learned: if you are actually in the throes of grief, maybe skip that tour and that album unless you are ready for a good cry. There was not a dry eye in the house.
I attended my first Joint Service Academy Business Mixer, heavily attended by West Point Class of '96. We forgot to take a photo though. I guess that means I have to go back next time! If you are in the DC area, whether or not you are an Academy grad, let me know if you would like to be my plus one for networking there next time!
West Point Women hosted me for a virtual conversation for Suicide Awareness Month, "You Don't Have to Carry This Alone." Women from the classes of 1983 through 2025 showed up. Quite the range of impressive, thoughtful, dedicated leaders.
This weekend, Mission Belonging celebrated "United Against Silence" (here is my reading) at the Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda, and Day of Belonging at Rockwood Manor in Potomac. The theme for both events was “Joy” - and joyous it was. What an amazing group of talented humans who want nothing more than to take care of each other. United Against Silence was a beautiful night of poetry reading and storytelling by Veterans - most of whom credit Mission Belonging with saving their lives. It was an extraordinary weekend of connection and celebrating life! Seema Reza, the CEO of Mission Belonging, has created a community full of joy, forgiveness (mainly self-forgiveness), and trust!
Check out this amazing photo of the audience for United Against Silence (thank you, Hava, Ashley, Courtney, and Katie for coming to support!!) |
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WITH GRATITUDE
This week, more than usual, I am grateful to be part of the West Point community.
The Joint Service Academy Business Mixer was my first reminder. I walked in not knowing what to expect. I walked out wrapped in hugs from people who felt like family before we had even finished introducing ourselves. That is what this community does. It closes distance instantly.
Then came the West Point Women event, and it hit me harder than I expected. On the screen, I got to see my wife, a West Point roommate, women from the Swimming and Soccer communities, and role models from generations before mine and after mine (this year marks the 50th anniversary of women at West Point, btw, which made the event even more impactful). Sitting in that conversation, surrounded by that history, I felt the full weight of it. It was not a meeting. It was a reunion.
The topic that night was suicide awareness. Talking about it in that room, with those women, brought me back to my Psychiatry training in a way I did not see coming. I no longer practice Psychiatry, but the skills never left me. I carry them into every room I walk into now (but not with friends - I would never analyze friends 😉).
The Academy gave me structure when I needed it most. It taught me to always be five minutes early (if you are not five minutes early, you are late). More than the discipline, though, it gave me people who show up.
If you have friends from this community, hold on tight. They will never let you down. |
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FROM THE BOOK
SELF-AWARENESS AND TRUST: LEADING HEALTHCARE TEAMS FROM THE INSIDE OUT
CHAPTER 6: How Trust Breaks: Fear, Silence, and the Cost of Unaddressed Rupture
Chapter 5 was about what it costs to lead from your values when they get tested. Chapter 6 is about what happens to everyone around you when leadership goes quiet when communication is needed most.
It opens with a government shutdown. The emails started late one evening. Do we come to work tomorrow? Are we allowed to check our email? Do we get paid? I was not personally at risk the way many people were, but I had spent years becoming the person people came to when they needed someone to listen. So they came.
Two of those people stayed with me. A junior scientist sat in my office and asked whether she should pull her daughter out of daycare. She did not know if she would get paid. She did not know if her job would still exist when the shutdown ended. Then a medical student walked in wearing her uniform, having just realized that a commitment she made for the next fourteen years of her life was to an institution that seemed to have already decided that she did not matter.
I had nothing to offer either of them but the truth. I did not know. I was sorry. It was not enough, and I knew it was not enough while I was saying it.
What I watched happen next was not random. It followed a pattern, one I started calling FRACTURE, and it explains why organizations lose people long before they ever see it coming on paper. I hope you’ll check it out.
The shutdown ended after 42 days. Paychecks resumed. On the surface, it looked like recovery. But trust does not reset the way a payroll system does, and what I found waiting on the other side of that shutdown was harder to fix than anything the shutdown itself had broken… |
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A LEADER I AM WATCHING: Dr. Kevin Chung
I have known Kevin for decades, in more contexts than most people get to see one person in: guiding careers as the Army’s critical care consultant, traveling around combat zones to learn what he could do to support the doctors on the ground, saving my butt on more than one occasion as Chief of Medicine, and talking me through the wonderful, exciting times and the deeply challenging ones as a dedicated friend, mentor, and sponsor. I know he has played these roles for many other physicians - and I am sure there are more that I don’t know about.
Kevin is a 1995 graduate of West Point, just a year before me. He went on to Georgetown University School of Medicine, then a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Walter Reed. He spent twelve years at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, serving as Medical Director of the Burn Intensive Care Unit, Task Area Manager of Clinical Trials, and Director of Research. He deployed as Chief of the ICU for the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad in 2008, and again in 2012 as Director of the Joint Combat Casualty Research Team in Bagram. He later became Chair of the Department of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University, after serving as Chief of the Department of Medicine at Brooke Army Medical Center. He has authored over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, reviews, editorials, and book chapters, and has given more than 150 lectures around the world.
None of that is what made him legendary in military medicine.
At the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and at every other professional congress I ever attended, the moment someone found out you were in the military, the next question was always the same: "Do you know Kevin Chung?" Everyone knew Kevin Chung. Not because of the publications or the titles. Because of exactly who he is. He is unassuming. He is respectful. He knows what someone needs, shows up to help, and delivers on his commitments every single time. He truly cares about the people he leads.
When Kevin left the Army to pursue his passion for multi-organ support in critically ill patients, it broke the collective hearts of those in Military Medicine. He is now Chief Medical Officer at SeaStar Medical, where he leads the clinical strategy behind extracorporeal therapies designed to save lives of the critically ill.
It is a comfort to know he is still the guy who shows up when you need him. He always has been. He always will be. |
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| • StandUp4Doctors Retreat: Oct 9–12, 2026, Ossining, NY
• International Society for Hair Restoration Surgeons World Congress, Oct 15, 2026; Congress in Rio de Janeiro, but I will be presenting virtually: “Standing FIRM: Assertive Communication for Women in Male-Dominated Professions.”
• American Association of Physician Leadership, Oct 22-24, 2026; Scottsdale, AZ - Presenting: “Across the Divide: A Practical Workshop in Civil Discourse.”
• International Coaching Federation, Converge 2026, Oct 28-30, 2026, Washington, DC
Book Launch Events: While I will be launching the book at Mission Belonging (Potomac, MD), Women in Medicine, (Chicago, IL), and American Association for Physician Leaders (Scottsdale, AZ), the following events will be for the book only:
• Healthcare Leadership Foundation Virtual Book Launch: Oct 29, 2026 6-8pm - Block your calendar, Invitation forthcoming
• Army-Navy Country Club, Arlington, VA: Feb 11, 2027 6-8pm - Block your calendar, Invitation forthcoming
• If you have other ideas or would like me to come to your program or institution, please do not hesitate to reach out!
Self-Awareness and Trust: Leading Healthcare Teams From the Inside Out is now available. You can buy the book at Amazon and the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL).
📖 Learn more: jessbuninmd.com/book |
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| ONE QUESTION FOR REFLECTION
Is there a trust fracture in your organization that has been acknowledged but not yet repaired? What could the first concrete behavioral change look like?
Please consider sharing the newsletter with someone who might like to join my journey.
I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions!
I will write again in 2 weeks!
Warmly,
Jess
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