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News Track: University of Iowa Health Care switching search firms for revamped VP search

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Background​


University of Iowa Health Care’s first attempt to find a new vice president for medical affairs fell short in October, after a monthslong effort to replace outgoing Brooks Jackson yielded a finalist who turned down the offer.


Although the UI brought four finalists to campus in August and September from the likes of Dartmouth Health and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, for example, officials opted not to make a second offer and instead suspended the search.


UI President Barbara Wilson and Provost Kevin Kregel took eight weeks to reevaluate and collect campus feedback before resuming the search in December, with a new committee and search firm.


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Jackson, who leads both UI Health Care and the Carver College of Medicine, came to the university in 2017 and announced in February 2022 he plans to step down — although he’ll remain on faculty as a UI professor and researcher. He was paid over $1.28 million in fiscal 2022, state records show.


He also has agreed to continue serving atop the expansive health care system and college until a successor begins.


In reevaluating how to proceed with the search, Wilson and Kregel opted to keep the two roles Jackson plays as one combined position.


What has happened since​


Earlier this month, the UI announced it’s not using search firm WittKieffer again for its revamped vice presidential hire — following the first failed search. Instead, the university has hired search firm Spencer Stuart to help for a professional fee of $300,000, according to its contract with the UI.


That fee doesn’t include expenses, “with the possibility of an upward fee adjustment upon completion of the search.”


UI Health Care has used Spencer Stuart only once before — in 2016 for its hire of an associate vice president for marketing and communications.


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For the failed search, UI paid WittKieffer $299,012.71.


“Because the search did not result in a successful hire, the money paid to WittKieffer will be applied to a future search,” UI officials told The Gazette.


Due to the time commitment required of search committee members, the university has compiled a different group of UI and regent-affiliated members for this second attempt.


Leading the new committee is Matthew Howard, chair and department executive officer of the Department of Neurosurgery, along with Edith Parker, dean of the College of Public Health.


Joining them on the committee:


  • Alexander Bassuk, professor of pediatrics-general neurology and chair;

  • Sherry Bates, president pro tem of the Board of Regents;

  • Mark Braun, Board of Regents executive director;

  • Keith Carter, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and chair and head of the Department of Ophthalmology;

  • Joseph Clamon, associate vice president for legal affairs with UI Health Care;

  • Lyndsay Harshman, associate professor of pediatrics-nephrology, dialysis and transplantation;

  • Jackie Kleppe, director of outreach and engagement with UI Health Care Marketing and Communications and Staff Council president;

  • Benjamin Linden, third-year medical student in the Carver College of Medicine and Graduate and Professional Student Government representative;

  • Peter Matthes, vice president for external relations and senior adviser to the UI president;

  • Cheryl Reardon, chief human resources officer and associate vice president;

  • Marta Van Beek, professor of dermatology and executive medical director of UIHC’s main campus ambulatory clinics.
 
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