Nebraska chief academic officer vies for top post

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
04/19/04

The executive vice president, provost and dean of the graduate college at the University of Nebraska Dr. Jay Noren is the second of four finalists selected to visit the University of Alaska Fairbanks as a candidate for the position of UAF chancellor. He will travel to Alaska April 27 for campus interviews.

Dr. Noren is a physician and 1970 graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School. In 1976, he received a master’s of public health degree from Harvard University. He was a research fellow at the Harvard Center for Community Health and Medical Care, a Robert Wood Johnson health policy fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and a Winston Churchill Fellow in England and Scotland. He earned his bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and 1970, respectively.

He did his graduate and post-graduate work in health policy, health services research, public health and internal medicine at Harvard, the University of Vermont and Michigan State University. Dr. Noren is a diplomat with the American Board of Preventive Medicine, Occupational Medicine and General Preventive Medicine.

In addition to serving as senior executive officer for academic programs at the University of Nebraska, Dr. Noren has principal responsibility for annual and biennial budget development and analysis as well as proposed annual allocation of state appropriations, tuition revenues, the Nebraska state research fund and several foundation funds valued at approximately $590 million.

The University of Nebraska system includes undergraduate, graduate and professional campuses in Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney as well as additional programs at several sites statewide.

Dr. Noren began his academic career in 1976 when he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a position he held until 1993 and again from 1995 to 1999. In addition to his faculty appointments at Wisconsin, he has also held appointments as professor at the University of Nebraska, the George Bush School of Government and the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University and Health Science Center. He’s also been a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington and research scholar at the National Institute of Health Policy.

Dr. Noren’s research and teaching emphases are health policy and politics, health services leadership and management, health workforce, the role and operation of academic health centers, Native American health care and executive education.

Several open forums will provide opportunities to meet candidates vying for the post of UAF chancellor. Current Chancellor Marshall Lind will retire July 1 after nearly 40 years of service as an Alaska educator and administrator. An online feedback form will be posted on the chancellor search website at http://www.uaf.edu/chancellor/search/ to provide an opportunity for the public to evaluate the candidate. The schedule of open forums to meet the candidates will also be posted there.

The first candidate to interview at UAF was Stephen G. Wells, president of the Desert Research Institute in Nevada. DRI is an autonomous nonprofit division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, reporting to the UCCSN chancellor and ultimately to the UN Board of Regents. Wells visited UAF April 12-15.

UAF expects to host its third chancellor candidate for interviews beginning May 3. The name of the candidate and the schedule of open forums for the public will be released April 26. The fourth and final candidate to interview for the UAF chancellor position is tentatively scheduled to be in Fairbanks May 12-15.

Events scheduled for the public to meet Dr. Noren are as follows:

Wednesday, April 28

1:30 - 2:45 p.m., Open Forum with faculty/staff/students Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom, Fairbanks campus

3:30-5 p.m. Open Forum with faculty/staff/students and community Tanana Valley Campus Center, 604 Barnette Street, Fairbanks, room 110

5:30-6:30 p.m., Community Reception, (5 p.m. meet and greet) Tanana Valley Campus Center, 604 Barnette Street, Fairbanks, student lounge

Thursday, April 29

1-2:30 p.m., Open Forum with faculty/staff/students and community Kuskokwim Campus, Bethel

Friday, April 30

10:15 a.m. - noon, Open Forum with faculty/staff/students Geophysical Institute, Globe Room, Fairbanks campus

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CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Carla Browning at (907) 474-7778 or visit the chancellor search website at http://www.uaf.edu/chancellor/search/ for more information.