Dr. Jay Stein has resigned from his position as Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and Medical Center CEO, effective immediately.
Dr. Stein has made enormous contributions to the University and Medical Center since Provost Charles Phelps and I invited him to Rochester eight years ago. His visionary leadership has been transformational for the Medical Center; the results are enduring. The Medical Center's strategic direction is clearly the right one -- for the Medical Center, for the University, and for the Rochester community -- in terms of the development of clinical programs, basic research, medical and nursing curricula, and in terms of the Center's rapidly growing predominance in the development of biotechnology and related fields that hold promise for the local economy.
These strategic aims, as championed by Dr. Stein, will be vigorously pursued as we go forward, drawing on the superb strengths of the Medical Center management team. There has not been any question about strategic direction; rather, I recently have had increasingly serious concerns about issues and methods of coordination involving the Medical Center and University.
Provost Charles E. Phelps, a nationally recognized health economist and former chair of the School of Medicine and Dentistry's Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, will now serve as Acting Senior Vice President for Health Affairs. Provost Phelps will assemble an Executive Leadership Group to help him continue the smooth functioning of the Office of the Senior Vice President for Health Affairs. He also will chair a national search for the permanent successor to that position.