Dr. Robert Sticca to step down as chair of the SMHS Department of Surgery

After leading the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) Department of Surgery through an impressive period of growth – especially of its surgical residency program – Chair Dr. Robert Sticca will step down as department chair on June 30, 2021. He will continue thereafter in his role as a faculty member with the rank of professor of surgery in the Department.

“We are grateful for the many contributions of Dr. Sticca to the Department, School, University, and the greater community of North Dakota,” said SMHS Dean Dr. Joshua Wynne. “We are pleased that he will continue to contribute to the Department as a continuing faculty member.”

In his nearly two-decade period of leadership of the Department of Surgery, Dr. Sticca was instrumental in expanding the teaching agenda and scholarly productivity of the Department. As former Director for the UND Surgery Residency Program, he helped expand the Department’s profile in a variety of ways, including establishing the Department’s and Program’s electronic newsletter. Service to the community was another essential component of his tenure, and the nationally recognized and lauded Rural Surgery Support Program was created and designed to aid rural hospitals and surgeons with the rural surgery practice issues in their communities. Initiated in 2014, the program provides highly qualified surgical expertise to rural communities that otherwise would have insufficient surgical professional support to meet the needs of their communities.

Dr. Cornelius “Mac” Dyke, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Sanford Health and campus dean for the School’s Southeast (Fargo) Campus, will take over as chair of the UND Department of Surgery on July 1, 2021. Dr. Dyke has a distinguished track record of clinical care, teaching, and scholarship. Concurrent with his assumption of the chair position, he will be stepping down as campus dean. A search for his successor as campus dean will begin shortly.