New UK Deans, EVPHA Receive Board Approval

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (Sept. 15, 2017) — The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved the appointments today of a new executive vice president for health affairs (EVPHA) and two college deans.

Kentucky native Dr. Mark F. Newman will be the new EVPHA.  Newman comes to UK after serving as president of Private Diagnostic Clinic, the physician practice plan for Duke University’s Medical Center. He will begin his post at UK Oct. 1.

Newman, an anesthesiologist and native of Owensboro, Kentucky, is a veteran of the Air Force.  He had been at Duke since 1992 and held a variety of increasingly senior positions, including professor of medicine and chair of anesthesiology.

As the new EVPHA, Newman succeeds Dr. Michael Karpf, who has led UK HealthCare for nearly 15 years through a remarkable transformation, growing to a $1.5 billion enterprise with nearly 40,000 inpatient discharges and 1.5 million clinic and outpatient hospital visits annually.

Mark Shanda is the new dean of the UK College of Fine Arts  He comes to UK from Ohio State University, where he was most recently a professor and season producer at the Department of Theatre in the OSU College of Arts and Sciences. Shanda is also president of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology.

On the faculty for more than 30 years at OSU, Shanda also served in administrative positions including divisional dean of arts and humanities in the OSU College of Arts and Sciences from 2010 to 2015, and dean of the Department of Theatre from 2005-2010.

Shanda succeeds David Sogin, who had served as interim dean since July 1, 2016.

The first dean of UK's Lewis Honors College is Christian Brady, who comes to UK from one of the most highly regarded honors programs in the country, the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University, where he was dean from 2006 to 2016. Previously, he directed the honors program at Tulane University.

At Penn State, Schreyer — under Brady’s leadership — raised more than $80 million to enhance honors education, developed a renowned leadership academy, and tripled applications to the college while also increasing selectivity.

In October 2015, the University of Kentucky received the largest single gift in its history — $23 million — from alumnus, longtime donor and successful entrepreneur Thomas W. Lewis and his wife Jan to create the Lewis Honors College from the previously existing Honors Program. 

In other UK Board of Trustees action:

— UK's 2017-22 Diversity Plan was approved. As outlined by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, the plan addresses goals in the areas of opportunity, success and impact.  Among the eight goals set forth in the plan are increasing the percentage enrollment of underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students; increasing retention and graduation rates of underrepresented minority and low-income students; and increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of UK's faculty and staff.

— UK's executive vice president for finance and administration was authorized to negotiate and execute an amendment to the ground lease between UK and Lexington Suite Hotel LLC for a lot on the Coldstream Research Campus.  Lexington Suite Hotel, which brought Embassy Suites to Coldstream, has expressed an interest in constructing a second hotel adjacent to Embassy Suites.  It would consist of approximately 130 guest rooms.  The lease amendment proposes reconfiguration of the lot to accommodate a second hotel.

The UK Board of Trustees held its board and committee meetings this month at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights and at the St. Elizabeth Training and Education Center in Erlanger, Kentucky.