05/27/2025    Patrick A. DeHeer, DPM

New Student Enrollment Campaign (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

As a lifelong fan of the Grateful Dead, one of my
favorite lyrics from *Playing in the Band*
resonates deeply with me:

“Some folks look for answers
Others look for fights
Some folks up in treetops
Just looking for their kites.”

I’ve always looked for answers.

I love podiatry. My career in this field exceeded
every expectation, and I remain deeply grateful.
That gratitude has translated into decades of
service to this profession—not out of obligation
but out of a belief that we each have a
responsibility to leave the profession better than
we found it.

The Foundation for Podiatric Education (FPE) was
created by action of the APMA House of Delegates—
our profession’s representative voice—through
Budgetary Action Item 2-23: Podiatric Medical
School Student Recruitment. The FPE Board
comprises representatives from key stakeholder
groups across the profession. After a thorough
review process that included interviews with
multiple analytics and marketing firms, the board
selected JPA Health. Funding has come from these
stakeholders. The campaign is built on over 18
months of research and data analysis. This was not
a rushed or casual effort—it is being executed
with purpose and will be continually adjusted
based on measurable outcomes.

Phase One of the campaign launched this week.
Phase Two will begin in August for the next
application cycle.

You correctly noted the need for a more reliable
metric for podiatric compensation. Unfortunately,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data has
long been problematic. It includes resident
salaries and often misses ancillary income streams
like surgery center ownership, consulting, and
private practice profit structures. Many other
commonly cited sources are equally flawed. As a
residency director, I can confirm that my
residents' eventual incomes regularly exceed the
figures listed on the DiscoverPodiatry.org site.
The need for better compensation data is not lost
on those of us working in the trenches.

However, the tone and content of your comments
about the **American Association of Colleges of
Podiatric Medicine (AACPM) is disappointing.**
These are not fair criticisms. AACPM publicly
posts application data each year once the cycle is
complete. There is no conspiracy, no hidden
agenda. The deans, faculty, school recruitment
teams, and AACPM leadership are working tirelessly
—alongside FPE—to address the very real challenges
of student recruitment. The FPE’s *Podiatrists
Move the World* campaign complements AACPM’s *Feet
on the Street* initiative. We’re rowing in the
same direction.

Armchair quarterbacking is easy. Being in the
arena is not.

If you are serious about improving the profession,
I welcome your ideas and help. If you have
actionable solutions, I’m happy to discuss them
with you. But throwing stones from the sidelines
does nothing to support our schools, students, or
future.

To close, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite
passages from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech
*Citizenship in a Republic*, delivered at the
Sorbonne in 1910:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles, or where
the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes
short again and again, because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming; but who does
actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends
himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows
in the end the triumph of high achievement, and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly, so that his place shall
never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat."

That’s where I stand. In the arena. Alongside many
others. We may fail, but we will never stop
trying.

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