Thomas Cockayne Jr., Ph.D., has been appointed director of the Center for Continuing Education at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Prior to joining UNMC, Dr. Cockayne was the director of medical education for Aurora HealthCare, an integrated health-care delivery system headquartered in Milwaukee. Dr. Cockayne was responsible for fiscal and administrative management of graduate and continuing medical education programs for more than 160 residents and 2,000 practicing physicians encompassing four major teaching hospitals and 58 ambulatory care centers. Previously, he was director of academic affairs at Lutheran General Hospital, a 700-bed teaching hospital, in Park Ridge, Ill. He also worked from 1985 to 1990 in Saudi Arabia at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center where he was responsible for developing residency programs in internal medicine, pathology, OB/GYN, surgery and pediatrics.
A Salt Lake City native, Dr. Cockayne earned his doctorate in educational psychology in 1974 from the University of Utah. He was subsequently employed as director of medical education at the university, serving until 1986.
Dr. Cockayne succeeds William Gust, M.D., who served as director from 1984 to 1996. Dr. Gust will continue to serve the full-time UNMC faculty as assistant professor in the internal medicine department and will also remain a consultant to the dean of the College of Medicine on continuing education matters.