Interim Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs

Jane Meza, PhD, serves as the interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and the chief academic officer for UNMC, following the selection of H. Dele Davies, MD, as interim chancellor. She was previously the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Along with her role as interim vice chancellor for academic affairs, Dr. Meza continues her work in global engagement and strategic planning. Dr. Meza is also a professor in the UNMC Department of Biostatistics.

She previously held positions that included the interim executive director for health security, created as part of the UNMC response to COVID; interim dean of the UNMC College of Public Health; chair of the UNMC Department of Biostatistics; and senior associate dean of the UNMC College of Public Health. 

Dr. Meza joined UNMC in 2000 after earning her doctoral degree and master's degree in statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Throughout her tenure at UNMC, Dr. Meza has played an integral role in advancing UNMC’s mission, including helping to lead the campus through the COVID pandemic and expanding UNMC’s global presence.

Dr. Meza’s methodological research focuses on statistical issues related to clinical trials and small-area estimation. These methods have been extended to disease mapping applications and combining national and state data to estimate the probability of a rare event. She has been responsible for the statistical design, conduct and analysis of clinical, basic science and public health research in numerous projects. 

The interdisciplinary nature of Dr. Meza’s work has resulted in research in a wide variety of public health-related topics, including rhabdomyosarcoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, smoking, COPD, health insurance and medication errors.