On Thursday, Jan. 16, UNMC and University of Nebraska at Omaha Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., joined UNO Senior Vice Chancellor Sacha Kopp, Ph.D., and UNMC Senior Vice Chancellor Dele Davies, M.D., in sharing the following message with UNMC and UNO faculty and staff:
Members of the UNO and UNMC campus communities,
For more than a year, the UNMC and the UNO campuses have worked together to continue to advance our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through the recruitment of an assistant vice chancellor for inclusion for the UNO and UNMC campuses. Throughout this recruitment process, and in many formal and informal meetings on campus, you all have conveyed the great importance we place on this work, which has been actively ongoing on both campuses. Indeed, this work is strongly woven through our respective strategic plans and campus cultures.
This past fall, the search committee for the AVC for inclusion brought forward candidates for campus visits. In these visits, and in your thoughtful, constructive and candid feedback, it has become clear that our aspirations are far greater than initially described, and you articulated significantly different roles, based upon existing structures and opportunities for our continued leadership on each of the two campuses. In addition, there have been significant new opportunities on each campus to continue to broaden and deepen our focus in this area.
Therefore, after consultation with key members of our community, our respective leadership teams and the co-chairs of the search committee, we have decided to halt this specific search and proceed with two campus appointments, in close collaboration, supporting this area. We are very grateful to those who have offered their experience and leadership during this process.
Further, the search committee worked diligently and was dedicated to a broad and inclusive search for this position. We thank all the individuals who participated in this process and the committee members for their efforts. We would especially like to recognize the efforts of our search committee co-chairs, Cecil Hicks of UNO and Aileen Warren of UNMC, who each serve as assistant vice chancellor for human resources at their respective institutions.
With this important step, we’re confident that each campus will continue to make important contributions to our diversity, equity, and inclusion mission for students, faculty and staff, and who will serve together as the chancellor’s liaisons with the NU System on DEI initiatives. We welcome feedback and anticipate that more information regarding this process and campus-specific appointments will be forthcoming shortly.
Sincere regards,
Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D.
UNO and UNMC Chancellor
Sacha E. Kopp, Ph.D.
UNO Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
H. Dele Davies, M.D.
UNMC Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs