Alumni Association leadership stays in the family
As a new school year begins at McGovern Medical School, many around campus and throughout the McGovern community may not have noticed that the Alumni Association has a new president. This could be because the incoming president looks almost identical to the outgoing president.
At the McGovern Medical School Alumni Association Annual Board Meeting on Aug. 11, outgoing president Roger Khetan, MD, ’94, handed over the reins of the Alumni Association to his twin brother, Rainer Khetan, MD, ’94.
“Having the torch passed from his was amazing,” Rainer said. “I hope I do as good a job as he and all the previous presidents did. I look forward to this moment in my life’s timeline with excitement. I think Roger did great as president and built on what our predecessors did. His enthusiasm is infectious, and I hope to do the same.”
During his term as president (2020-22), Roger focused on fundraising and the need for alumni to pay it forward for future colleagues.
“We may have loans to pay, family obligations, practice issues, and others asking for charitable contributions, but we need to give back to the future physicians,” Roger said. “That is a gift we need to continue to do from $5 to $100,000 or more. We have the power to change a future colleague’s ability to attend school and understand why we joined this noble profession.”
Rainer says his main goal as alumni association president will be to build on the foundation that previous presidents have laid before him, including his brother Roger.
“One of the things I mentioned in the most recent meeting is to help the school get to the point that tuition would be cost neutral to students one day,” Rainer said. “Lots of us had debt leaving medical school, and if we can help lower it with a fund created to endow tuition, then we have enabled our graduates to be a step ahead when leaving the school. Obviously, that is a long-term goal, and not something that will happen overnight, but we have to have big goals.”
The ideologies and goals the twins share for heading the Alumni Association at McGovern Medical School are a microcosm for their lives growing up together as twins. From sharing the same interests, to playing the same positions in sports, and even scoring similar grades most of the time, the two have been close since the beginning and are often each other’s biggest supporters.
“My brother and I have been inseparable,” Rainer said. “We have been best friends for life, and I wouldn’t know what to do if he wasn’t around. We always liked hanging together and working together and shared the same passions.”
Growing up, the brothers changed schools frequently due to their father’s work in the petrochemical industry, often resulting in moving to small towns and big cities, where they were the only children. This helped build the bond between the two, who began showing similar interests as each other even when placed in different groups or activities.
Following high school, each brother attended Texas A&M University for three years, before moving onto McGovern Medical School. At the Medical School, each took an interest in internal medicine, leading to careers for both in Dallas. The two are so similar, they each earned the exact same score on the internal medicine recertification exam in 2019.
“Going through your life with a twin is a little different, but we are really close as our parents moved a lot when we were children,” Roger said. “With those moves, we always depended on each other, and it became natural throughout our lifetime. The best thing about my twin is he is my biggest fan and biggest critic. We knew we both had no back-up plan if we failed out of medical school, so when one of us felt down, the other one was there to pick him up.”
Roger also noted the significance of having his brother alongside him through his medical school journey.
“It was truly incredible having a built-in support network as we started that part of our careers. My brother is one of the nicest human beings I know, and having him there through the medial school adventure was amazing. Whenever there was a bad moment or long day, he always knew how to look at it in a positive way.”
The brothers’ similarities continue, when they reflect on what their journey at McGovern Medical School has meant to them and their careers. Each of them speaks fondly on their experiences and the relationships they formed with classmates, now colleagues.
“What I liked best at our school was the fact all of us tried helping one another to become great,” Rainer said. “The medical school really encouraged collaboration and working together among students early in the journey. That helps in forming collegiality sooner than a lot of other places in my opinion.”
Now the brothers are tasked with helping to continue the mission of McGovern Medical School and see that the bonds students create with their classmates every four years can extend to those among other classes who are now members of the alumni association. Their current similar interests include helping to ensure alumni of McGovern Medical School continue to and invest in the future generations of students.
“I am excited Rainer wanted to be president of the alumni association,” Roger said. “It is an honor to pass the torch onto him. I think his presidency will really focus on how to capture the young physician alumni and keep them engaged in paying it forward for the ones that follow them. His passion is to see how we can make medicine a continued noble and fun profession for many years to come. That passion will come out during meetings, I hope, and make it more fun for all of us.”