Tammy Webster, PhD, assumed leadership of the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions May 1 as the second dean in the college’s history. She succeeded Kyle Meyer, PhD, who led allied health at UNMC for 20 years.
While a new leader often seeks to emphasize learning and listening, Dr. Webster knows that – having been in allied health at UNMC for 25 years – she is expected to hit the ground running at a college that has had a string of recent successes and growth.
Dr. Webster said she is trying to seek a balance between the two approaches.
She does have vast institutional knowledge at UNMC and within the college. But, she said, “I’m also being careful that I’m taking off my blinders and learning from the perspective of this new role.”
Looking ahead, Dr. Webster said the college will work to continue the steady momentum it has achieved, especially in the last decade, while also embracing some new areas of emphasis to meet changing realities.
She spoke of “expanding to pockets of need,” be that geographically, adding new professional programs, adding new partnerships or building upon the college’s growing foundation of research.
“We will keep our eye on the ball in workforce development,” Dr. Webster said.
This also means “becoming uncomfortable with how we deliver education.”
These days, many of the people UNMC and the college serve may not be free to go to school from 8-5, Monday through Friday.
“Our nontraditional will become our traditional,” Dr. Webster said, as UNMC allied health changes to meet the needs of those who already are in the workforce or caring for children or parents. Many learners, in 2026 and going forward, are working to build upon their skills and respective educations during time carved out from busy lives.
The UNMC College of Allied Health Professions’ quality of education remains unmatched, Dr. Webster said. “We have to become more creative in our packaging to deliver it.”
Serving as dean is in some respects a long way from earlier chapters in her career when she was a practicing radiologic technologist. “It was my craft, my passion, my roots,” Dr. Webster said. “My ‘why’ was patient care.”
Becoming an educator and then advancing in academic leadership took her further from the individual patient. But it also gave her an opportunity to have an impact on more patients, and at a greater scope and scale, Dr. Webster said.
Dr. Webster is mindful that after 20 years of continuous leadership, any change is a big change. She will be different than Dr. Meyer. But in working with him closely for the past several years, Dr. Meyer has always encouraged her to be herself as a leader, Dr. Webster said.