A Nashville doctor who stayed in the running after other contenders dropped out has been named dean of the planned medical school at the University of Central Florida.
Deborah German, a former associate dean at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and hospital executive, was selected Wednesday by UCF President John Hitt.
She said she is excited at the prospect of heading the new medical school.
“This is an opportunity to build something from scratch,” German said by telephone from Washington, where she is completing a one-year stint as scholar in residence at the Association of American Medical Colleges.
German, who is widowed and has two adult daughters, said she would start the job as soon as she can sell her house in Nashville and move to Florida. UCF officials want her on board by Jan. 1.
“This is a challenge because it has not been done before in Orlando,” German said.
But with good local hospitals, university research already in place and strong community support, the medical college should be a success, she said.
German, 56, will be paid $400,000 a year, which UCF officials say is a relatively modest salary for the head of a medical school. At UCF only Hitt, who gets $450,000, and football coach George O’Leary, at $1 million, earn more.
“As we begin a new phase in the life of this University with a medical school, it is important that we have the right person to lead us into the future,” said Hitt, pointing to German’s medical school and hospital experience. “We are fortunate to have her join us.”
German, who has a degree from Harvard Medical School, was senior associate dean of medical education at Vanderbilt University from 1999 to 2002 and was responsible for undergraduate and graduate medical education, admissions, curriculum, financial aid, student affairs and accreditation.
She was associate dean of students for the previous 10 years.
From 2002 to 2004 she was president and chief executive officer at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, where she was credited with cost savings.
UCF is expecting much from German.
The dean must design a curriculum for medical students, hire faculty and staff, seek accreditation of the school and keep an eye on construction of medical school facilities at the separate health sciences campus UCF plans to build in the Lake Nona development near Orlando International Airport.
The Florida Board of Governors approved a medical school for UCF in March, and officials have been scrambling to hire a dean to head it as a first step toward an August 2009 opening.
A search committee interviewed the five finalists in September. But one by one, all except German dropped out of contention.
UCF officials said each decided the job was not right for them.
One, Thomas Schwenk of the University of Michigan Medical School, complained that UCF officials “were in a rush for the first candidate who could get there.”
University officials acknowledge they are pressed to get the medical school up and open for the first class of 40 students.
UCF hopes eventually to graduate 120 doctors each year.
Officials already have pushed back the opening date a year.
Construction of the first building on the health sciences campus was set to begin in January, but now has been pushed back to February or March.
But they say desperation didn’t figure in their choice of German.
“Deborah German was always at the top of my list,” said UCF Vice President Terry Hickey, who worked with Hitt to make the selection.
German’s first priority, Hickey said, will be developing the curriculum for medical students.
The school must have preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, a national accrediting group, before it can accept its first students.
Although research and economic development are expected to come out of the new medical school, the accrediting agency is interested in what students will learn, Hickey said.
He described German as “superbly qualified” to set up the undergraduate program.
Preliminary accreditation must be in hand 18 months before the school opens, giving German only about a year to acquire it.
“There needs to be strong attention to the need for accreditation and the timetable it demands,” German said.
But she said there are plenty of models for opening medical schools and she will draw from them to set up UCF’s.
The school was sold to the state as a means to promote economic development in Orlando.
Local community leaders hope a medical research community will arise around the campus.
A veterans hospital and a biomedical research facility for California’s Burnham Institute also are planned for Lake Nona, and a Nemours children’s hospital is in the works.
Hickey said that while UCF will encourage related development, it’s not the university’s task to lead the drive.
Instead, a boom in medical-related businesses and institutions will come as a natural result of the medical school being there, he said.
“The medical school becomes a magnet that attracts people,” Hickey said.
