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From the Dean

This past Monday there was a very special event for Susan and me. President Armacost, on behalf of UND, oversaw a celebration of what we together have accomplished over the past 15 plus years that I’ve had the pleasure and honor of serving as Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of your School of […]

This will be a brief update, as I just returned from some days with our family. Susan and I got to see all five of our grandkids, and it was a grand event (pun intended). On the update front, the search for my replacement is in its final stages. As I’ve indicated, the list of […]

The performance of the U.S. healthcare system has been on my mind recently, likely due to the intersection of two factors. The first was the publication a few weeks ago of a study sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund entitled Mirror Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System. The second was the visit […]

Homecoming 2024 certainly ended on a high note! As mentioned in last week’s column, we held our annual homecoming banquet for SMHS graduates last Friday night, and the turnout was tremendous, with an especially nice showing of graduates from our various health sciences programs. Earlier that day I chatted with several M.D. graduates from our […]

What a week! UND Homecoming 2024 has been exciting – with more to come! On Wednesday, Susan and I attended a dinner hosted by the UND Alumni Association & Foundation. It actually was a working dinner, focused on “Building Momentum: A Night for Forever UND Leaders.” As you may know, the Foundation is in the […]

We have a lot to celebrate this week. Perhaps at the top of the list is to extend congratulations to the six SMHS faculty members who were promoted and/or granted tenure this year. These faculty members have excelled in their respective fields through their teaching and/or research. Our honored faculty members joined 23 others from […]

A month and a half ago, I summarized the various facility improvements that are underway at our main building on the UND campus in Grand Forks as well as at our regional campuses in Fargo (our Southeast campus) and Minot (our Northwest campus). Additionally, Altru Health System’s new hospital building in Grand Forks is nearing […]

As I mentioned a week ago, the last of the three finalists in contention to succeed me as vice president for health affairs (VPHA) at UND and dean of the SMHS, Dr. Elizabeth Petty, is finishing her interview schedule today. Dr. Marjorie Jenkins was here earlier in the week and Dr. Stephen Scott was here […]

As you may be aware, the national search for my successor as the next vice president for health affairs (VPHA) at UND and dean of the SMHS is in its final stages. The first of three finalists was on campus this week, and the two other finalists will visit next week. The next step will […]

This past Wednesday I was invited to participate in a meeting of our Internal Medicine Interest Group, organized and run by medical students interested in that specialty. This session was intended as a subspecialist question-and-answer panel for students interested in the different pathways within internal medicine. As you may know, internal medicine is a wide-ranging […]