With a new chancellor soon to be named, now is the time to think of the “blue sky vision” for what UNMC should look like in the future – and how it will get there, said Fred Meyers, M.D.
Dr. Meyers, the executive associate dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, was the first finalist for the UNMC chancellor’s position to visit campus. During his three-day visit, he met with various members of the campus community.
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During Tuesday’s hour-long public presentation, Dr. Meyers introduced himself to the audience, talked about a vision for UNMC and fielded questions.
He spoke of a model that was “student focused, but patient and family centered.”
He spoke of the need for teamwork and for metrics to measure the performances of departments and centers as a whole.
He spoke of the need for diversity of views.
“You can’t be excellent if you’re not diverse,” he said. “As a health care system, there is room for lots of different views. By having that controlled conflict, we take advantage of what makes our community great.”
Remarking on the “fabulous set of structures” that comprise the campus, he said it needed “cutting edge, high-impact, leading-the-nation” programs.
The job of the chancellor, he said, will be to “move comfortably from one audience to another,” being engaged in aspects of research, education and patient care.
“I want to continue the culture of philanthropy, but also the culture of community engagement,” he said. Speaking of the level of community support for UNMC, he added, “You have something very special here.”
The real job of the chancellor, he said, will be “setting the culture of collaboration, diversity and teamwork.
“My job is to make you be more effective in what you do on a daily basis.”
Drawing on a hockey analogy, Dr. Meyers said: “They say you need to be skating where the puck is going to be, but I think we need to control the puck.”
Dr. Meyers spent time fielding questions, including one about allocating financial resources between research, patient care and education.
“We need to invest in units who embrace collaboration and teamwork, teams and infrastructures that allow multiple people to do a good job,” he said.
“Given the limited amount of dollars, it’s very difficult to invest in people who work just for themselves.”
Dr. Meyers also drew laughs by describing himself as a typical Californian, tall and good-looking. “It’s just what happens,” he said.