Dr. Gerard P. “Gerry” Clancy has been selected as vice president for health affairs and dean of The University of Tulsa’s new College of Health Sciences, TU President Steadman Upham announced Monday.
Clancy, who has served in his current role as president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa for eight years, will begin his duties at TU on Jan. 1, when the College of Health Sciences officially begins operations.
“TU is proud to welcome such a well-respected member of our community and of the medical field to our campus as we embark on this bold new strategy to improve the health of underserved citizens,” Upham said. “Dr. Clancy is a tireless advocate for both health and education and, as such, is the ideal candidate to fill this crucial role. This is an exciting day for our students, our faculty and our future.”
The College of Health Sciences will bring together several existing TU programs, including nursing, physician assistant/pre-med, athletic training, exercise and sports science, and communication disorders. Additionally, the new college will house the faculty of community medicine and advance TU’s strong partnership with the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.
“For more than a decade, Tulsa has been on the leading edge of a health care revolution, but our work is far from done,” Clancy said. “We recognize the need for medical services that reach the most vulnerable among us, from small farm communities to bustling urban cores. My new role at The University of Tulsa will allow me to focus on the calling to which I am most dedicated: Educating world-class medical experts who will put our city and our state on a new path to overall wellness.”
Clancy joined the University of Oklahoma in 2001 as dean of the OU College of Medicine in Tulsa, professor of psychiatry, and Morningside Health Care Foundation Endowed Chair in Leadership. Since Clancy became president, the OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center has added more than $327 million in new facilities, academic degree programs, endowed faculty chairs, and student scholarships. That campus also has established educational and research partnerships with more than 100 community agencies. He also helped develop a community health network that includes after-hours free clinics for the underserved, pediatric school-based clinics in disadvantaged areas, mobile psychiatric teams, and the OU Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Clinic.
Through a $50 million donation from the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Clancy led the transformation of medical education at OU-Tulsa in 2008. The College of Medicine’s Tulsa branch was renamed the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine. Its mission is to improve the health of all Oklahomans, particularly those in underserved areas. In 2011, OU and The University of Tulsa announced plans to create a four-year community medicine academic program in Tulsa.
Clancy earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Iowa, where he later served as a faculty member and vice chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. He is a graduate of the Harvard University Medical School Programs in Health Care Policy and Management and Non-Profit Financial Stewardship and served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force as a flight surgeon and pilot.
“We’re grateful for Dr. Clancy’s service to OU and to the community,” OU President David Boren said. “While the OU family will miss him and his wife, Paula, we look forward to our continued relationship with him in his new role at TU, where he’ll be strongly involved in the collaboration between our two universities.”
Boren said he will recommend that the OU Board of Regents approve the appointment of John H. Schumann, M.D., to serve as interim president of OU-Tulsa, effective January 1, 2015. Dr. Schumann is program director and vice chair of education for the OU School of Community Medicine’s Internal Medicine program. Schumann is a frequent host on KWGS.
“Ever since Dr. John Schumann came to OU -Tulsa more than three years ago, he and his wife, Dr. Sarah-Anne Schumann, have been hard at work to improve the quality of life and health care for all Tulsans,” Boren said. “He has proven himself to be an exceptional physician and administrator. His educational background is outstanding. We are very fortunate that he has agreed to step into this important leadership position.”
Dr. Schumann said, “I am honored that President Boren and the OU Board of Regents have asked me to take on this new role at OU-Tulsa. I look forward to working with our outstanding faculty and the Tulsa community to ensure that our students and patients have the best possible experience at OU-Tulsa and that we can continue to increase the educational opportunities for our students.”
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