UTHSC Chancellor Steve Schwab announced in June that he plans to retire. He will continue to serve as chancellor until June 30, 2022, or until a successor is on board. The University of Tennessee System has launched a search for his replacement.
Schwab has been with UT Health Science Center for 15 years, serving as chancellor since 2010. Prior to that, he was executive dean for the UTHSC College of Medicine.
“It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve as UTHSC chancellor,” Schwab says. “I am pleased by the progress we have made in these 12 years, and I look forward to even greater progress going forward.”
Under Schwab’s leadership, UTHSC has expanded clinical partnerships across the state; grown its education enterprise to more than 3,300 students and 1,400 residents and fellows; achieved graduation rates of about 95 percent and overall first-attempt board pass rates at 95 percent or higher; raised its research enterprise, roughly doubling its grant awards; and stood as a health-care leader in the state during the global pandemic.
“It has been my honor to work beside Chancellor Schwab these past few years,” UT President Randy Boyd says. “He had to be a brilliant doctor and researcher to earn his position, and he obviously is both of those. But in the role, he has proven to also be a great strategist and great leader. He is always honest and direct, has bold vision and gets things done. The UT family, our OneUT, will always owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Steve for all he has done for each of us, for UT and our state.”
Historic Quadrangle Work Complete
The $70 million renovation of the Historic Quadrangle at the center of UTHSC’s Memphis campus was completed in the spring. The construction took more than three years and includes a new administration building in the Mooney Library, a new home for the College of Nursing in the Crowe Building and almost 70,000 square feet of state-of-the-art wet lab research space in the Nash and Nash Annex buildings.
“This is the original footprint of where the University of Tennessee College of Medicine started over 100 years ago, the footprint that now serves as the nucleus to a thriving academic medical center comprised of nationally ranked programs,” says Ken Brown, executive vice chancellor and chief operations officer at UTHSC.
College of Pharmacy Leader in Research
The UTHSC College of Pharmacy rose to number 14 in funding from the National Institutes of Health this year, according to a new listing from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy of its approximately 140 colleges and schools of pharmacy.
“NIH funding is highly competitive, and this ranking is a mark of our effort and excellence as a college,” says Marie Chisholm-Burns, dean of the College of Pharmacy.