University Times

A search committee for a new senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences has been formed and was charged by Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor on Sept. 13.

Committee members include: chairperson Mark Nordenberg, law; George Board, psychiatry; James Herndon, orthopaedics; Katheryn Linduff, fine arts; Herbert Rosenkranz, environmental and occupational health; Ellen Rudy, nursing; Brian Hart, human genetics; Donna Close, student affairs; Esi Lamouse-Smith, graduate student; Melissa DeCicco, undergraduate student; James Cunningham, social work; Sheryl Kelsey, epidemiology; Judith Lave, health services administration; Eugene Myers, otolaryngology, and Nina Schor, pediatrics.

The new search is the second one undertaken to fill the position. The first search began in the summer of 1992 after Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Thomas Detre announced in spring 1992 that he planned to retire on Aug. 31, 1993.

That search ended in the summer of 1993, when the University failed to come to an agreement with any of the four candidates selected by the search committee.

"It was one of those things," Edward Stricker, chairperson of that committee said at the time. "You have a search and do your best, but there are no guarantees you're going to succeed. They weren't able to come to a mutual understanding on both sides." Also at that time, Senate Council President James Holland complained that the position might be difficult to fill because the job is subordinant to that of Jeffrey Romoff, president of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Plans to launch a new search were announced at the beginning of September 1993, but canceled later that month by Chancellor O'Connor.

The chancellor said he was delaying the search at that time because of the introduction of President Bill Clinton's national health care reform and its implications for academic health centers.

Chancellor O'Connor also said that he was delaying the search for a senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences because there already was a search going on for provost and "we must pay close attention to the continuity in leadership within the University administration while we search for a permanent provost." To insure continuity in the senior administration, Detre also agreed to stay on as senior vice chancellor of Health Sciences until a successor was named.

–Mike Sajna