Committee Launches Search for Dell Medical School Founding Dean

A committee of 18 educators, community leaders, health professionals and students has begun the search for a founding dean of the Dell Medical School, the first new medical school among top-ranked research universities in more than 35 years.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the university, the community and most of all, for a very talented person who will serve as inaugural dean to build the Dell Medical School from the ground up,” said Steven Leslie, executive vice president and provost for The University of Texas at Austin.

“In Austin, we have a unique situation,” Leslie said. “Major public and private institutions are coming together and will construct the laboratories and classrooms of a medical school along with a new teaching hospital. At the same time, community programs will be initiated to serve people who need health care. There will be tremendous interest from dean candidates who want to make a difference in the health of a community and an impact on global health concerns.”

Dean search committees typically comprise deans, professors and students. The Dell Medical School founding dean search committee includes these and also has members from key organizations such as Seton Healthcare Family and Central Health, partners in the initiative, as well as a community physician.

Seton is constructing a new teaching hospital; Central Health has been authorized by the public to purchase services for uninsured Travis County residents from the hospital. Two medical schools UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and UT Southwestern Medical School also are represented.

The university has engaged Witt/Kieffer, a search firm with extensive experience identifying deans for medical and health sciences schools including nursing, dentistry, allied health, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, public health and biomedical/life sciences.

Chairing the committee will be Dr. Robert O. Messing, vice provost for biomedical sciences and the Henry M. Burlage Centennial Endowed Professor in Pharmacy. Messing came to the university in January from the University of California, San Francisco, where he was on the faculty for 26 years, having spent the past 15 years as an administrator helping to build a highly successful research institute, the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center.

“The founding dean will be someone who can create a medical program that graduates doctors who are intellectually curious and inspired by their years studying with professors in many diverse disciplines,” Messing said. “During their careers, these doctors will make a difference in how medicine is practiced and taught.”

The committee hopes to have a dean in place in time for the start of the new academic year in order to prepare for the first class of about 50 students, who are expected to matriculate in 2016.

The members of the search committee are: