From a list of 40 candidates, Nancy Dickey is the sole finalist for president of the Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center chosen.
Dickey previously was the interim dean of the College of Medicine at the Health Sciences Center. The Health Science Center is comprised of the College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, the School of Rural Public Health and the Baylor College of Dentistry.
The search committee that named Dickey as a finalist included faculty, staff and students, along with the director of the Institute for Biosciences and Technology in Houston and faculty associated with the Scott and White Clinic and the Veterans Affairs hospitals in Temple.
“The committee conducted a national search for prospective candidates,” said Dr. Jerry Gaston, a search committee chairman and deputy chancellor for the A&M system. “We were dealing with an extraordinary group of capable people. After reviewing their strengths and weaknesses, we suggested three names to the chancellor, who then gave his recommendation to the Regents.”
Dickey’s experience with primary care and her 1998 to 1999 presidency of the American Medical Association were reasons behind her selection, Gaston said.
“She is extremely knowledgeable of the health issues that are problematic in this country,” he said.
Gaston said there was a motion in the Executive Session for Dickey to be chosen for the position.
“The committee worked very hard to make this a national search that concluded with the outcome of someone already known to us as the best possible choice,” Gaston said.
An official appointment could be made this month.
“I am honored by the Regents vote of confidence to name me the sole finalist,” Dickey said. “I look forward to the possibilities of the extraordinary opportunities at the Health Sciences Center.”
She said the Health Sciences Center has a very strong reputation. The College of Medicine has quadrupled external funds and contains the only school of rural public health in the nation, Dickey said.
“With many nationally and internationally recognized figures, we want to see how we can best serve the entire state and make the Health Sciences Center stronger than the sum of its parts,” Dickey said.
Dickey is the founding program director of the Family Practice Residency of the Brazos Valley and a professor of Family and Community Medicine. She has been recognized by the Texas Society of Pathologists, the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.