Working together, UNMC’s momentum continues

UNMC Interim Chancellor H. Dele Davies, MD, sent this message on Tuesday, July 8, to all UNMC faculty, staff and students.

To the UNMC community:

As we mark the one-year anniversary of my appointment as interim chancellor by President Gold, I’ve been reflecting on all that we’ve accomplished together this past year.

It’s been an honor to lead UNMC and to travel across the state to meet with Nebraskans in various locations who value – and depend on – the work we do in our classrooms, research and simulation labs, patient clinics, and through the public-private partnerships that help grow our economy and increase our state’s health care workforce.

In the hustle of each day and the stressors we face, it’s easy to overlook our successes as a university as we continue to transform lives and create healthier futures. But we should take pride in the many achievements of the past year, including:

• Welcoming 4,703 students in fall 2024, our 24th consecutive year of enrollment growth.
• Topping a record $217 million in research expenditures and $141 million in federal research grants.
• Forming UNMC’s inaugural staff advisory council, and conducting the first employee engagement survey since 2019, all of which help us create a better workplace for everyone.
• Working with the University of Nebraska System Office to preserve current federal grants, educate lawmakers on the value of UNMC and NU, and advance university priorities that improve the lives of fellow Nebraskans.
• Documenting the enormous economic impact UNMC has on both the city of Omaha and the state – a total of $7.7 billion when combined with our primary clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, and other affiliates.
• Working with our facilities and leadership teams at UNMC and UNK to ensure that expansion of the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Education Complex on the Kearney campus, which will more than double the number of our health professions students training in rural Nebraska over the next five years, is completed on budget and on time. 
• Developing the programmatic elements of the Kristensen Complex to offer new and expanded opportunities in medicine, pharmacy and other health professions education to fulfill our mission of substantially expanding the state’s rural workforce.
• Working with our health care partners across the state to grow the number of health professions clinical mentors (preceptors) and rural clinical rotation sites, ensuring our students and medical residents have adequate rural training opportunities and establishing quality, safe and affordable accommodations for use during their rotations.
• Continuing development of the physical and programmatic aspects of Project Health on the Omaha campus; as we move into the construction phase, the transformational project notably will have an estimated economic impact of $3.2 billion.
• Recognizing bold investments made in us by our philanthropic community, as shown by the $825 million currently raised toward UNMC’s $1 billion goal through the Only in Nebraska capital campaign, which is 8% ahead of pace. This includes $74 million raised in new scholarship funds and $48 million in new chairs and professorships, while exceeding our overall targets for the number of new donors. 
• Opening and breaking ground on new buildings in our newly named EDGE District, which will accelerate discovery, entrepreneurship and economic growth in health sciences and biotechnology for our faculty, staff, students and community partners across Nebraska.
• Breaking ground and starting construction on a new residence hall facility for UNMC students in Omaha to meet growing demand.
• Undertaking a review of UNMC IT services and support to enhance information technology value and efficiency.
• Enrolling the 100,000^th student in the UNMC and UNO Building Excellence in Academics Through STEM (uBEATS) interactive e-learning program designed to promote interest in health science STEM fields in middle and high school students across Nebraska and around the nation.
• Engaging more than 1,000 UNMC alumni through in-person events.
• Celebrating approximately 1,400 graduates during winter and spring commencement ceremonies.

Beyond these accomplishments, countless more success stories took place at the college, institute, department and program level, in the face of challenging headwinds. As I’ve said before, it’s important to remember what grounds us, especially in times of turbulence. As UNMC stewards, we will remain steadfast in our powerful mission and committed to serving all our communities, while ensuring the safety of everyone on our campuses.

I am very grateful to President Gold, the NU Board of Regents, our Nebraska state legislators, Gov. Pillen’s office, the NU Foundation, our community and city partners, UNMC Board of Counselors, federal congressional delegation and of course each of you — our faculty, staff and students — without whom none of the momentum UNMC continues to have could be accomplished.

I’m inspired every day by the work you do to make UNMC such a special place. Thank you for your contributions to the successes of the past 12 months, and I look forward to what we will do together in the coming year.

H. Dele Davies, MD

Interim Chancellor, UNMC