Kern Family Foundation founders

Robert D. Kern and Patricia E. Kern.

Source: MCW "Philanthropy Spurs Innovation" 2021

Mr. Robert D. Kern passed away peacefully on November 8, 2022, at the age of 96. Our thoughts continue to be with the Kern family and Foundation.

Mr. Kern was a distinguished entrepreneur and philanthropist in Milwaukee. He is widely known as the founder of Generac Power Systems, Inc., established in 1959. He and his late wife, Patricia, established the Kern Family Foundation in 1998.

The Foundation set a mission to empower the rising generation to build flourishing lives anchored in strong character, inspired by quality education and guided by the desire to create value for others. Along with making a transformational investment in the KNN’s work to advance flourishing in medicine, the Kern family and Foundation have supported numerous other local institutions and nationwide programs including Marquette’s College of Engineering, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network and Project Lead the Way.

"Mr. Kern was an amazing man who left a lasting, generational impact,” said Cheryl A. Maurana, PhD, founding director of the KNN, senior vice president for strategic academic partnerships, and professor of population health at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “We were fortunate to know him, to learn from him.”

Mr. Robert D. Kern and Mrs. Patricia E. Kern leave a legacy of generational impact nationally, and their spirit of generosity will live on well into the future.

The KNN Book Club is a space to read about and discuss concepts that inform the KNN Integrated Framework as well as their application within medicine’s learning and practice environments. Book selections rotate through works considered seminal by the KNN and titles suggested and voted on by book club members.

The KNN Book Club is made up of participants from across the KNN and is a wonderful place to wrestle with challenging and important concepts of character, caring, practical wisdom and human flourishing.

The book club meets every other Wednesday at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm CT via Zoom.

Start Date: January 11, 2023

Estimated End Date: April 12, 2023

Deadline to Register:

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

The first five registrants will receive a FREE book. All students that register will receive a FREE book!

Upcoming Book

"Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing" by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe illuminates how to get back in touch with our wisdom—how to identify it, cultivate it, enact it, and how to make ourselves healthier, wealthier and wiser.

KNN Conference Plenary Recordings Now Available

The KNN's new online community was introduced in September 2022 at the inaugural KNN Conference. The virtual community of practice was created as a space to learn, connect, catalyze and reconnect with joy and beauty in medicine, and put concepts of caring, character and practical wisdom into action to advance human flourishing.

By popular demand, all recordings of conference plenaries, along with other conference materials, have now been uploaded into the online community library.

KNN Updates

Congratulations are in order for KNN board member Catherine R. Lucey, MD, MACP! She has been named the new Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost for the University of California, San Francisco. Click here to read more about her dedication to UCSF's mission.

Kari Reynolds has joined the KNN program office as a senior administrative assistant and will focus on supporting the KNN's national director of strategy and partnerships, Kimara Ellefson.

Have an update to share? Please email us.

Upcoming Events 

December 5, 11 am - 12 pm CT | Virtues & Vocations presents Dr. Anika Prather on Education & Liberation

Educator and author Anika Prather, PhD, will discuss education and liberation as a part of the Virtues & Vocations webinar series, "Education for Flourishing: Pursuing Purpose in the Professions."

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER >

May 2 - 4, 2023, Wellesley, MA | Millennium Conference

The Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) announced a request for applications to participate in the 2023 Millennium Conference, the twelfth working conference in medical education. Applications must be submitted by 4 pm CT on January 20, 2023.

LEARN MORE AND APPLY >

Resources



• Human Flourishing 2030: Flourishing in the Learning Environment (Video) | Watch as five leaders and learners explore strategies for infusing human flourishing into clinical learning environments, and ways to become beneficiaries of human flourishing within educational settings.
• KNN: The Power of the Network (Video) | Hear perspectives from individuals at medical schools across the nation involved in the movement on the power of the KNN integrated framework, the network at large and how the transformational work has benefitted leaders and learners.
• GMEcast: A Framework for Medical Error Disclosure (Audio) | Listen as two doctors discuss the importance of disclosing medical errors and what framework faculty can follow to better prepare medical students.