Eight months after unveiling four finalists to become vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Carver College of Medicine — only to dismiss three after the chosen applicant turned down the job — the University of Iowa again is bringing to campus its top prospects.
This time, though, only two finalists will participate in open forums in early May when they also will meet with faculty, staff, students and campus leaders.
Names of each candidate will be made public 24 hours before their open forums, scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. May 1 and May 8, according to the UI.
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The 13-member search committee — co-chaired by UI College of Public Health Dean Edith Parker and Department of Neurosurgery Executive Officer Matthew Howard — hasn’t shared a timeline of next steps following the campus visits or details of how members of the public might be able to provide feedback.
The chosen finalist will succeed Brooks Jackson, who announced more than a year ago in February 2022 plans to resign and resume his research as a UI faculty member. Jackson, who came to the UI in 2017 to lead the growing UI Health Care enterprise and College of Medicine, committed to stay at the helm until a replacement arrives. He was paid nearly $1.3 million in fiscal 2022, state records show.
Holding master’s and doctorate degrees from Dartmouth College, Jackson — a pathology professor who chaired the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine pathology department from 2001 to 2014 — gained acclaim before joining the administrative ranks as a world-class AIDS researcher.
The first search committee to replace him produced four finalists — two women and two men. But UI officials never identified the finalist to whom they offered the job, and they scrapped the entire search after he or she turned down the offer. The four finalists at that time were:
A month before Jackson announced plans to resign, UI Hospitals and Clinics CEO Suresh Gunasekaran said he was leaving to lead the University of California San Francisco Health System.
Chief Nursing Executive Kim Hunter has been serving as the interim CEO for more than a year — as administrators want to wait to hire a permanent replacement until after finding a new vice president for medical affairs.
For the first failed vice president for medical affairs search, the university paid firm WittKieffer $299,012.71.
UI officials went with a different firm for the search do-over, paying firm Spencer Stuart a $300,000 fee to relaunch the process, according to its contract with the UI.
Because the first search didn’t produce a successful hire, the money paid to the firm will “be applied to a future search,” UI officials told The Gazette.
In the year-plus since Jackson and Gunasekaran announced their departures, UI Health Care has moved forward with expansive growth both on and off the main campus.
It’s building a $525.6 million hospital campus in North Liberty; spending $95 million to add two floors to the existing main campus patient tower; and moving ahead with a $37 million emergency room expansion; an $8 million south wing conversion for more beds; and a $2.3 million “ophthalmology simulation lab” on Parking Ramp 4’s lower level.
UIHC is spending up to $49 million more to build out an expanded neonatal intensive care unit on the seventh floor of its six-year-old Stead Family Children’s Hospital that — undergoing a sizable window repair and replacement project — has seen its budget swell from $270.8 million to up to $450 million.
And last week the university began the design process for a new inpatient tower expected to cost more than $620.9 million.
www.thegazette.com
This time, though, only two finalists will participate in open forums in early May when they also will meet with faculty, staff, students and campus leaders.
Names of each candidate will be made public 24 hours before their open forums, scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. May 1 and May 8, according to the UI.
Advertisement
The 13-member search committee — co-chaired by UI College of Public Health Dean Edith Parker and Department of Neurosurgery Executive Officer Matthew Howard — hasn’t shared a timeline of next steps following the campus visits or details of how members of the public might be able to provide feedback.
The chosen finalist will succeed Brooks Jackson, who announced more than a year ago in February 2022 plans to resign and resume his research as a UI faculty member. Jackson, who came to the UI in 2017 to lead the growing UI Health Care enterprise and College of Medicine, committed to stay at the helm until a replacement arrives. He was paid nearly $1.3 million in fiscal 2022, state records show.
Holding master’s and doctorate degrees from Dartmouth College, Jackson — a pathology professor who chaired the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine pathology department from 2001 to 2014 — gained acclaim before joining the administrative ranks as a world-class AIDS researcher.
The first search committee to replace him produced four finalists — two women and two men. But UI officials never identified the finalist to whom they offered the job, and they scrapped the entire search after he or she turned down the offer. The four finalists at that time were:
- Sandra L. Wong, a professor of surgery; chair of the Department of Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health; and professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
- Cristen P. Page, executive dean of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where she supervised a team of vice deans, chairs and center directors.
- Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., a University of Chicago professor; founding director of the trauma center at University of Chicago Hospitals; executive vice president of community health engagement; and chief of the Section of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
- Bradley E. Britigan, a professor and dean of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, responsible for the University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty practice plan in collaboration with the chief executive officers of Nebraska Medicine and Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha.
Temporary leadership
A month before Jackson announced plans to resign, UI Hospitals and Clinics CEO Suresh Gunasekaran said he was leaving to lead the University of California San Francisco Health System.
Chief Nursing Executive Kim Hunter has been serving as the interim CEO for more than a year — as administrators want to wait to hire a permanent replacement until after finding a new vice president for medical affairs.
For the first failed vice president for medical affairs search, the university paid firm WittKieffer $299,012.71.
UI officials went with a different firm for the search do-over, paying firm Spencer Stuart a $300,000 fee to relaunch the process, according to its contract with the UI.
Because the first search didn’t produce a successful hire, the money paid to the firm will “be applied to a future search,” UI officials told The Gazette.
In the year-plus since Jackson and Gunasekaran announced their departures, UI Health Care has moved forward with expansive growth both on and off the main campus.
It’s building a $525.6 million hospital campus in North Liberty; spending $95 million to add two floors to the existing main campus patient tower; and moving ahead with a $37 million emergency room expansion; an $8 million south wing conversion for more beds; and a $2.3 million “ophthalmology simulation lab” on Parking Ramp 4’s lower level.
UIHC is spending up to $49 million more to build out an expanded neonatal intensive care unit on the seventh floor of its six-year-old Stead Family Children’s Hospital that — undergoing a sizable window repair and replacement project — has seen its budget swell from $270.8 million to up to $450 million.
And last week the university began the design process for a new inpatient tower expected to cost more than $620.9 million.
UI Health Care eyeing two finalists for re-started VPMA search
Eight months after unveiling four finalists to become vice president for medical affairs and dean of its Carver College of Medicine --
www.thegazette.com
