Sunday, June 7, 2009
Barbara Atkinson, Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of Kansas Medical Center, will fill the gap between outgoing Chancellor Robert Hemenway’s departure on June 30 and incoming Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little’s arrival on August 15.
The Kansas Board of Regents called Atkinson and asked her to serve as interim chancellor June 4.
Atkinson said that she did not expect the offer, but that as interim chancellor she would ensure that the transition ran smoothly. She will be spending time both in Lawrence and at the Med Center in Kansas City, Kan. throughout the summer.
“I don’t have anything specific that I’m going to try to get done,” Atkinson said. “I will do whatever it is the new chancellor would like me to do to help prepare her so that she is ready to start right away. Anything she wants to have me do, I’ll begin to work on.”
The two met after the May 29 announcement of Gray-Little’s appointment and will be meeting again this week to discuss what Gray-Little wants to accomplish this summer.
“I am really excited about Dr. Gray Little’s appointment. I think she is an outstanding person and a wonderful fit for KU,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson said she did not think her interim position would require a lot of preparation. She has worked closely with Hemenway for the past seven years and she said that she knew the position well and that things were relatively slower in the summer than during the fall and spring.
Both educators have extensive backgrounds in medicine. Gray-Little earned both a Ph.D. and a M.S. in psychology at St. Louis University. And at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the administration of the medical school reports directly to her. Atkinson is the Executive Dean of the KU School of Medicine. Atkinson said Gray-Little’s appointment would help the University achieve its 2011 National Cancer Institute designation as well as advance its life science research.
As chancellor, Gray-Little will be a member of the KU Hospital Authority Board, which manages the KU Hospital and which Atkinson said was already looking forward to working with the new chancellor.
Hemenway said Atkinson was the perfect choice for interim chancellor because, like Gray-Little, she is familiar with the challenge of balancing the goals of a medical center and a university.
“We talk a lot about acting as one university, and Barbara Atkinson really believes in that philosophy. I know that she will do everything in her power to make Chancellor Gray-Little have the support that she needs,” Hemenway said.
Hemenway has been a strong advocate for the Med Center, helping it achieve many of its goals. In 2005, he declared that the University’s number one priority was finding a cure for cancer.
“I’ll remember Chancellor Hemenway for setting the hospital on the right course to be successful by allowing it to separate out from the University and into a separate hospital authority, helping generate money and support to build a new research building and for being supportive during our changing curriculum,” Atkinson said.
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