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Former University of Iowa professor rounds out final four to become vice president of medical affairs
University of Nebraska College of Medicine dean to visit UI campus Thursday
Aug. 31, 2022 3:42 pm, Updated: Aug. 31, 2022 4:10 pm
IOWA CITY — A former University of Iowa Health Care professor and member of the UI Cancer Center — who today is a professor and dean of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine — is the fourth and last finalist to become the next UIHC vice president for medical affairs and medical college dean.
Bradley E. Britigan — also responsible for the University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty practice plan in collaboration with the CEOs of Nebraska Medicine and Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha — will be on the UI campus Thursday and Friday to meet with faculty, staff, and students.
Like the three finalists before him, Britigan will participate in a public forum at noon Thursday in 1110 Prem Sahai Auditorium in the UI Medical Education Research Faciliity.
Britigan is the first finalist with UI roots and joins a diverse group that includes two women and a Black man.
- Sandra L. Wong, the first named finalist for the top job overseeing UI Health Care and the Carver College of Medicine, is a professor of surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health. She also serves as professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
- Cristen P. Page, who visited campus second, is executive dean of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where she supervises a team of vice deans, chairmen and center directors. She also sits on the UNC Health Board of Directors and UNC Health Executive Council;
- Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., who visited campus earlier this week, is a professor at the University of Chicago, founding director of the trauma center at University of Chicago Hospitals, executive vice president of community health engagement, and chief of the Section of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
Britigan — who earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, his medical degree from University of Southern California and conducted a residency and fellowship at Rhode Island Hospital and University of North Carolina, respectively — began his post-education medical career at UIHC in 1987 as an assistant professor of medicine.
He also served as a medical staff physician with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City for 16 years through 2004 — overlapping with his time as director of fellow recruitment for the UI Division of Infectious Diseases and then director of the Division of Infectious Diseases for both UIHC and the VA.
During his time at UIHC, Britigan also served as a faculty member with the Immunology Graduate Program and with the Iowa Cancer Center.
Before leaving in 2004 to become chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and chief of medical service at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Britigan served as a UI faculty member in free radical and radiation biology.
In Ohio, he served as a board member with University of Cincinnati Physicians and president of the University Internal Medicine Associates. Britigan made the leap to Nebraska in 2011, according to his curriculum vitae, serving as board member and vice president of UNeHealth.
He also continues to serve on the board of the Children’s Hospital in Omaha and as co-director of Children’s Specialty Physicians. With the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Britigan is a professor pathology and microbiology and a professor of internal medicine.
He’s authored or co-authored hundreds of publications, book chapters, abstracts and reviews.
Following Britigan’s visit to campus, a 21-member search committee — including Sherry Bates, president pro-tem of the Iowa Board of Regents; Peter Mathes, vice president for external relations and senior advisor to the president; and former Graduate College Dean John Keller — will continue their selection process.
That will involve reviewing feedback from members of the public, who can offer comments on the search website — where recordings of the public forums also are available. The search committee hasn’t made public a timeline for its selection; UI President Barbara Wilson holds the ultimate hiring decision.
The new UIHC vice president will report directly to Wilson and serve as a member of the president’s cabinet. As medical college dean, he or she will report to Provost Kevin Kregel.
Brooks Jackson, the outgoing vice president for medical affairs since 2017, is staying on until his successor starts.
Once his replacement starts, the UI will start its search for a new CEO of UI Hospitals and Clinics after Suresh Gunaseakaran in February left to lead the University of California San Francisco Academic Health System.
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
Bradley E. Britigan, professor and dean of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, is the fourth and last finalist to become the next UIHC vice president for medical affairs and medical college dean. (Provided by the University of Iowa)
