Marsha Morien has been named administrative director of the University of Nebraska’s Center for Biosecurity. She will continue to serve as administrator of computer assisted medicine and surgery, a post she’s held at UNMC since 1999.
Morien will provide support to accelerate the development of the University-wide Center for Biosecurity, which is administered at UNMC. Dr. Steven Hinrichs is director of the program and also serves as professor of pathology and microbiology at UNMC and director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory.
“We’re very fortunate to have the talent and experience that Marsha has to contribute to the development of the Center for Biosecurity,” Dr. Hinrichs said.
The center, which was approved by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents Dec. 14, will bring together expert scientists and clinicians from UNMC, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at Kearney to address the many facets of biosecurity.
“By designating a center we can pull faculty with an interest in biodefense together to better obtain funding, which will make us much stronger than if we go about it separately,” Morien said.
In the past, Morien contributed to the development of the Lied Transplant Center and the Organ Recovery Program at UNMC and NHS under the leadership of Byers Shaw, M.D. In addition, Morien assisted Dr. Shaw in various software development projects. In her newest role, one of Morien’s initial projects included coordinating a NIH grant application for a four-state region (Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri) focusing on research in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases.
“I’m excited about this additional opportunity to work with Dr. Hinrichs and by the progress we can make in research by reaching out to other University of Nebraska campuses,” Morien said. “The Center for Biosecurity dovetails nicely with my work in computer assisted medicine and Surgery and the campus connections I’ve made there.”