Basson named dean at Northeast Ohio Medical University School of Medicine

Marc Basson, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., senior associate dean for medicine & research at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS), has accepted an offer to be the next Dean of the School of Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED).

“I have truly appreciated the dedication and enthusiasm of our UND administration, faculty, and staff, and I have learned much myself from the opportunity to work with each of you,” Basson noted in a letter to UND faculty and administrators. “It has been an honor to work here, and I look forward to following UND’s trajectory from afar. Although NEOMED colors are blue and gray, I think that I shall always be green and white inside!”

Originally accepting the position of Associate Dean at North Dakota’s only medical school in 2015, Dr. Basson has served the School as a professor with co-appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Sciences, Pathology, and Surgery. Between 2015 and 2023, Basson took on a greater role in managing the School’s research enterprise, which grew significantly under his leadership. Funds awarded to the SMHS from external organizations, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation, nearly doubled between 2015 and 2022, growing from $27.5 million annually to $48.6 million in less than a decade.

In 2018, Basson, who also maintains a general surgery practice at Altru Health System, was the Principal Investigator (PI) responsible for bringing a large NIH grant focused on clinical and translational research – the Dakota Community Collaborative on Translational Activity (DaCCoTA) – to UND. Following Dr. Basson’s departure, the interim PI for the DaCCoTA grant will be Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., chair of the UND Department of Population Health.

SMHS Dean Dr. Joshua Wynne extended his thanks to Basson for his years of service to the School, and noted that the move is something of a win-win for everyone.

“When I recruited Marc here many years ago, he accepted the offer on the understanding that his ultimate goal was to become a medical school dean himself some day,” explained Dr. Wynne. “The fact that his outstanding work here validated his candidacy for the top spot at another respected medical school obviously is a credit to him, but it also is a testament to our institution and our state healthcare infrastructure. We’re very happy for Marc and wish him all the best.”

Basson will leave UND for NEOMED at the end of this academic year.