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Dear colleagues, Since its founding as a medical college in 1868, Wayne State University has played a vital role in the education and health of Detroiters. While Wayne State does much already to advance the health and wellness of our metro area and state, the health care landscape in our region is increasingly complicated and rapidly evolving, with ongoing system mergers; expansion of outpatient and community care models; and new home-based, technology-enabled clinical services, as well as unprecedented integration across these sectors. In this environment, having dedicated leadership to focus on health sciences-wide clinical relationships and affiliations in the support of and in coordination with our academic deans in this area is essential to advance our institutional position and leverage new opportunities that will provide additional benefit to the university and community. Furthermore, we can deepen our commitment and impact by having leadership span our health sciences colleges to enable and support interprofessional education, interdisciplinary research and integrated multidisciplinary service/outreach, particularly with the continued progress in assessing and moving toward the creation of a new school dedicated to addressing the public health needs of Detroit and the surrounding communities. Therefore, following consultation with our Board of Governors, pertinent deans and other university leaders, our health sciences enterprise will be realigned and led by a revised position of senior vice president for health affairs. The added focus, coordination and collaboration of this reorganized division will bring tremendous value for our university, support our health-oriented schools and colleges, and advance the health of Detroit and Southeast Michigan. This realignment comports with health leadership models nationally and is another step to better support our Wayne State students, faculty and staff in empowering health in our urban neighborhoods and drive prosperity for our community. The senior vice president for health affairs will oversee our health sciences enterprise and clinical relationships/affiliations and will support, coordinate and oversee the activities of the School of Medicine, the College of Nursing, and the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, as well as the new school dedicated to advancing public health, for which university-wide planning is underway. The Health Affairs division will also administer other key cross-cutting and interdisciplinary functions, such as the Office of Women’s Health, as we further strive to address the health concerns of our communities and reduce persistent disparities in health outcomes endemic to our region. Finally, the senior vice president for health affairs will concentrate even further on our efforts to serve the health needs of our communities through developing and optimizing our institutional relationships with the many health service delivery organizations and community partners across our metro area and region. As the health care landscape continues to evolve toward increased value-based care delivered increasingly in outpatient and community settings, the senior vice president for health affairs will be responsible for positioning Wayne State for continued success in this environment, leveraging our notable record of impact via traditional hospital-centered training and care. This realigned leadership role will provide innumerable platforms for new collaborations among our existing schools, centers and faculty members in the health sciences areas and across our campus, as well as promote and support potential for new avenues for grant applications, particularly those with large-scale collaborative partnerships. The senior vice president for health affairs will coordinate and collaborate with the provost, who will retain final approval for all faculty hires, academic programs and standards, and matters pertaining to student affairs. I am convening a search advisory committee to interview and identify qualified candidates for this new leadership position, to be chaired by Boris Pasche, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the WSU Department of Oncology and president and chief executive officer of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, and co-chaired by Debra Schutte, associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Nursing. The search advisory committee will be broad and inclusive, and will be composed of representatives from each of the health sciences colleges, university and shared governance leadership, transdisciplinary research centers, and others. The committee membership will be named shortly. SP&A, who has a strong record of success in recruiting accomplished, diverse leaders at this level, will assist us in generating outstanding candidates for this revised role, with the anticipation for a completed search by the end of the summer semester. This national search will be kicked off soon through campus listening sessions by SP&A and the search chairs with, in addition to our Board of Governors, each of the health sciences colleges and across the institution, university leadership, shared governance, our independent practice plans and other key external stakeholders to gather input from our communities to develop the position profile. Furthermore, SP&A requests assistance from our campus community in developing a strong pool of outstanding candidates; more information on how to submit nominations will be issued after the position profile is completed and posted — check the executive search page on the president’s website, where updates on all executive searches are posted. I thank Mark Schweitzer, M.D., and our faculty representatives on the exploratory committee and the ongoing working groups for their invaluable work toward creating a school dedicated to addressing the public health needs of Detroit and the surrounding communities. Dr. Schweitzer will focus his much-appreciated efforts on spearheading the next phase of planning and resource acquisition for the potential school devoted to public health that was announced in December by serving as a special associate to the president/provost for public health planning, as this task will take considerably more time in the coming months as we ramp up toward accreditation. He will also use some of his academic effort to serve as an associate editor of a high-impact journal focused on health economics. Please check the school website for more information on the planning process and outcomes as they are available. As a key anchor institution of the city of Detroit, one committed to our community and driving prosperity for its residents, Wayne State University continues to discover new methods in which to engage. This realigned, integrated support structure for our health sciences enterprise supports our Prosperity Agenda’s commitment to empower health for our urban neighborhoods and represents the next logical step forward to advance our academic, clinical and research missions to benefit our students, our patients and our city. Thank you for all that you to do support our great institution.
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