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University of Iowa will start search for hospitals’ CEO
Interim has held position for over a year as hospital expands
As a new University of Iowa vice president for medical affairs begins work in August, the UI will launch a search to find a new chief executive officer for the sprawling UI Hospitals and Clinics — a job that’s been filled on an interim basis for more than a year.
Chief Nurse Executive Kim Hunter was named the interim CEO when Suresh Gunasekaran left in the campus in 2022 to become head of the University of California San Francisco Academic Health System. UI leadership had been waiting to launch a national search to replace him until after appointing a new vice president for medical affairs — which now has happened.
In May, the university announced it hired retired U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Denise J. Jamieson, who had accumulated decades of leadership and health care experience with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at Emory University, to be both the vice president of medical affairs and dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine.
She replaces Brooks Jackson, who announced in 2022 he would resign and resume research as a faculty member, starting Aug. 1.
Monday, the university announced it would use the same executive search firm, Spencer Stuart, that resulted in Jamieson’s hire to assist in the search for new a Hospitals and Clinics CEO, who also would serve as an associate vice president to Jamieson.
Among other projects, UIHC is building a $525.6 million hospital in North Liberty; spending $95 million to expand its existing inpatient tower; and moving ahead with a new “North Inpatient Tower” on the main UIHC campus budgeted to cost more than $620.9 million.
Gunasekaran was paid $1.1 million in fiscal 2021, his last full budget year at UI.
The university announced the formation of a team seeking a replacement co-chaired by Dr. Colin Derdeyn, chair and executive officer of the UI Department of Radiology, and Peter Matthes, senior adviser to the UI president and vice president for external affairs. Other members of the team are:
- Joseph Clamon, UI Health Care associate vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, and chief strategy officer;
- Dr. Jacob Groen, president, House Staff Council, and resident physician, UI Department of Family Medicine;
- Mark Henrichs, UI Health Care associate vice president for finance and chief financial officer;
- Dr. Katie Imborek, UI Health Care interim associate vice president for health parity, and clinical professor and vice chair of clinical operations, UI Department of Family Medicine;
- Jackie Kleppe, director of outreach and engagement, UI Health Care Marketing and Communications, and past president, UI Staff Council;
- Dr. J. Lawrence Marsh, chair and executive officer, UI Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation;
- Greta Rouse, member and UI Hospitals & Clinics committee vice chair, member Board of Regents;
- Dr. Clark Stanford, dean, UI College of Dentistry;
- Dr. Douglas Van Daele, executive director, UI Physicians, and vice dean for clinical affairs, Carver College of Medicine;
- And Emily Ward, associate chief nurse officer, UI Hospitals and Clinics.
The UI did not provide a time frame for when the committee hopes to recommend finalists.
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