A College search committee has chosen Wiley Souba, a surgical oncologist from Ohio State University, to serve as the next dean of Dartmouth Medical School and vice president for health affairs for the College, Provost Carol Folt announced in an e-mail to the Dartmouth community on Thursday. Souba who currently serves as dean of the College of Medicine and vice president and executive dean of Health Sciences at Ohio State will replace current DMS Dean William Green on October 1, according to the e-mail.
As vice president for health affairs, Souba will be charged with coordinating a wide range of constituencies within the institution, Folt said in an interview. The position requires Souba to "integrate seamlessly" the work done by students and faculty in academic, clinical and hospital settings, in conjunction with College President Kim and the co-presidents of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
"Dr. Souba [will oversee] all the academic departments, graduate students and people that are important to the future of medicine," said Alan Green, chair of the department of psychiatry at DMS, who oversaw the search committee.
Souba also lauded the planned Center for Health Care Delivery Science, which he described as a "trans-institutional structure" that has the ability to connect many different resources at the College.
"I am convinced that Dartmouth has the right people and is agile enough to take advantage of that," Souba said in the interview. "I've been at other institutions where the lines in the sand make it difficult to do that, and power is in the connections between these various schools and various enterprises I think it's remarkable."
Current DMS Dean William Green has acted as a temporary replacement since the retirement of former DMS Dean Stephen Spielberg's resignation in January 2008, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Green will return to his previous position as the chair of the department of microbiology and immunology, according to the press release. The search committee originally aimed to fill the position by June 2010, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The committee looked for a leader with experience that would enable them to take advantage of the potential collaborative relationships in the Dartmouth community, Alan Green said.
"It is a pleasure to welcome Chip Souba to Dartmouth," Kim said in a press release. "He is highly regarded as a cancer surgeon, as a basic scientist, and as a talented administrator and leader. He is known for his ability to partner and to transform."
Souba has not yet announced any new plans for DMS and potential change in DMS enrollment is "to be discussed", according to Provost Carol Folt.
"We're just entering into a major period of strategic planning," Folt said. "We'll be looking at many things."
Souba has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals, written one book and edited two others. Souba also holds positions at several medical publications, serving as an editor of the Journal of Surgical Research, the Journal of Healthcare Leadership and the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery.
His research is focused on the metabolism of the amino acid glutamine and the role of leadership in academic medical centers. Souba, who received his doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health, previously served as chair of the surgery department at Penn State College of Medicine and surgeon in chief at Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, according to the College's press release.
He grew up in Caracas, Venezuela where his father worked as an engineer. He emigrated to New Jersey at age 15, and received his bachelor's degree in chemistry at Muskingum College in Ohio in 1975. He then earned his medical degree at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston in 1978 and completed fellowships at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute.
Souba has also served as a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and as the chief of surgical oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"Dartmouth is an institution that is prestigious enough, and has a rich history, and the right leadership to do great things. But it's also focused enough and small enough to do great things," Souba said. "When people get that we come to work to improve people's lives that's powerful."
