A leadership search is underway at UC Davis for a Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences based on our Sacramento campus. This role and the CEO role were previously held by David Lubarsky, who retired from the university in February. Bruce Lee Hall currently serves as Interim Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences and Chief Clinical Officer for UC Davis Health.
The vice chancellor will report directly to Chancellor Gary S. May. As the leadership search continues, Chancellor May answers some questions about this role and its importance within UC Davis Health.
Why is this moment in time critical for launching a search for the next Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences?
The Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences oversees the UC Davis Health system in Sacramento, and has primary responsibility in partnership with the provost, for leading both the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing. UC Davis Health is in the midst of transformative growth with major projects like 48X, an outpatient surgery center which greatly expands the patient care space on the Sacramento campus. The new Folsom Medical Building will open later this summer. Construction is also well underway on the new California Tower on the Sacramento campus that is due to open by 2030. These developments significantly expand our ability to serve our patients and train the next generation of health care professionals.
THE RECRUITMENT
At the same time, the broader health care landscape is evolving, which will also impact our health system. UC Davis Health has become a national leader in health care, education and research, and we have just completed our most recent strategic plan. We are now poised to define the next chapter — one that builds on our momentum and innovation, while navigating a complex and changing environment.
We are looking for a visionary, strategic and thoughtful leader who can guide UC Davis Health into the future. This is a person who can work collaboratively with the UC Davis main campus and the UC Office of the President while ensuring operational excellence, advancing our facilities and clinical capabilities, and crafting a forward-looking plan that keeps us at the forefront of academic medicine and patient care. Given the opportunity and change ahead, launching the search for our next vice chancellor is both timely and essential.
What are the top priorities you hope the new vice chancellor will address in their first 12-18 months?
Several priorities will require the new vice chancellor’s immediate attention. First, UC Davis Health is in a period of significant growth, with new facilities recently opened and major projects like the building of the new California Tower of the UC Davis Medical Center. It’s critical that we optimize the use of our current spaces, expand access to care, serve more patients and successfully bring these new facilities online to serve patients and support our mission.
Second, with our strategic plan for UC Davis Health complete, it’s time to look ahead and begin shaping the next one. The new vice chancellor will be expected to work collaboratively with existing leaders to develop and launch a forward-looking strategic plan to strengthen our clinical, academic and research missions.
Another top priority is talent recruitment. Key leadership roles need to be filled, including a new dean for the School of Medicine and a permanent chief executive officer to oversee hospital and clinic operations. Identifying and onboarding the next generation of leaders is essential to sustaining momentum and driving future success.
Finally, we anticipate federal funding challenges to continue for the foreseeable future. The incoming vice chancellor will need to have a deep understanding of the federal landscape to help guide decisions. The vice chancellor will need to be a key partner with other UC medical center leaders and the University of California Health system office in Oakland.
This role spans both UC Davis and UC Davis Health. What kind of leadership is needed to bridge academic, research and clinical missions effectively?
First and foremost, the next vice chancellor must appreciate and be deliberative about collaborating with the UC Davis main campus. The Davis and Sacramento leadership teams have seen great strides in this regard during my tenure, and I expect that to continue, and even to improve.
This position requires a leader who understands the three mission areas of education, research and high-quality clinical care. These are not competing priorities. They complement each other and contribute to UC Davis Health’s leadership in academic medicine, but aligning and advancing all three is a substantial undertaking. UC Davis Health includes thousands of physicians and care providers, nearly a thousand students, and hundreds of millions of dollars in active research.
One of the many things that makes UC Davis Health successful, and unique in California, is the connection to the breadth and depth of all that happens across the whole university. As the most comprehensive of all the UC campuses, UC Davis offers so many more possibilities benefiting academics, research and patient care. This means we need a thoughtful leader, one who values mutually beneficial partnerships, who has a deep understanding of each of the mission areas, and who can help turn bold ideas into real, meaningful progress — because that is who we are and what we do at UC Davis.
Looking ahead three to five years, how will we know the new vice chancellor has been successful?
UC Davis Health has elevated its local and national profile significantly over the last five to seven years, and continued momentum in this direction will be a key measure of success. The vice chancellor should build on this foundation, expanding access to care, deepening partnerships with researchers and industry, and creating more opportunities for students across the health sciences.
Another important measure will be the financial health of the system. The economics of health care will remain complex and challenging, so maintaining stability while investing in growth, innovation and patient care will be essential.
Finally, I expect to see UC Davis Health continue to earn national headlines and recognition for its high caliber research and patient care. We should expect to see UC Davis taking its rightful and hard-earned place on the national stage and being seen, not just on the West Coast, but nationally, as one of the nation’s premier top-tier universities.
What about this opportunity — and UC Davis more broadly — do you think will appeal most to top candidates across the country and around the world?
This is an extraordinary moment to join UC Davis and UC Davis Health. Our institution is on a strong upward trajectory, with a highly collaborative, mission-driven leadership team already in place. We are uniquely positioned in Northern California, where the need for our expertise and care are expansive and growing across more than 30 counties, from the greater Sacramento area to suburbs and rural areas that stretch across the region.
We are well positioned to meet the growing demands for health care, and the next Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences will shape how we progress as a health system. There’s an impressive leadership team in place already ready to support and implement the next vice chancellor’s vision. Having said that, the person in the position will have key positions to fill, operational decisions to be made, and challenging situations to be worked through, including what’s happening at the federal level.
It’s certainly a time when the right leader can make an enormous difference in advancing our mission while addressing the pressures that will arise in the years ahead. I know the next vice chancellor will find these opportunities compelling.
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