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Ayman El-Mohandes, M.B.B.Ch., M.D., M.P.H. |
The appointment, which is effective Sept.1 pending approval of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, was announced today by UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D.
“Ayman is nationally and internationally known in public health for his expert knowledge of maternal and child health issues,” Dr. Maurer said. “He brings huge leadership experiences to UNMC in providing public health services, both in the U.S. and abroad, in acquiring research funding, and in supervising students, residents, MPH fellows, maternal and child health interns and doctoral students.
“He is a transformational leader. I am delighted he is joining the senior leadership team at UNMC.”
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Dr. El-Mohandes, 57, is an educator, practitioner and researcher. He has served on the faculty of George Washington University (GWU) in Washington since 1985 after completing his training in pediatrics and neonatal medicine at DC Children’s Hospital.
After serving in the School of Medicine for 12 years, he joined the School of Public Health and Health Services at GWU to become its associate dean for research and one of its founding faculty. He is currently a tenured professor and chairman of the department of prevention and community health in the School of Public Health and Health Services as well as a practicing neonatologist and a professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Fluent in English, Arabic and French, Dr. El-Mohandes has participated in global health projects in Egypt, Indonesia, South Africa, India and Kyrgyzstan. He will become the second dean of the UNMC College of Public Health, which became operational in January 2007. The founding dean of the college, Jay Noren, M.D., stepped down last summer to become president of Wayne State University in Detroit.
For the past 11 months, Keith Mueller, Ph.D., has served as interim dean, and he also was one of four finalists for the dean position. Dr. Maurer said he was grateful for the outstanding job done by Dr. Mueller.
“I want to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Keith Mueller for leading the College of Public Health during the interim period,” Dr. Maurer said. “He has done a superb job in continuing its development, including helping to lay out the new College of Public Health facility to be constructed beginning in late spring.”
He also saluted the search committee, which was led by David Crouse, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, and the search firm, Korn Ferrey International.
“The committee moved quickly to come up with its final choices of highly qualified applicants to consider,” Dr. Maurer said. “I am most appreciative of their service to UNMC.”
For Dr. El-Mohandes, becoming dean of the College of Public Health is an opportunity of a lifetime.
“The UNMC College of Public Health has a tremendous wealth in its faculty and outstanding potential as a leader in the field regionally, nationally and internationally,” he said. “Being part of a thriving medical center such as UNMC will allow for a dynamic collaboration across all the health-related sciences in a spirit of mutual enrichment, scholarship and service.”
The UNMC College of Public Health is the first new college on the UNMC campus since 1968. Although there are 125 academic medical centers in the United States, less than 40 have accredited colleges of public health. There are no other colleges of public health in a large section of the northwest United States, which spans 1,400 miles east-west and 800 miles north-south of Nebraska.
Although still in its infancy, the College of Public Health received a huge boost last year when a gift from Omaha philanthropists Ruth and Bill Scott resulted in the college being designated for a new building.
The Scotts wanted the new building to be named in honor of Dr. Maurer and his wife, Beverly. A groundbreaking ceremony was held last August to announce the Harold M. and Beverly Maurer Center for Public Health.
The 52,500-square-foot facility will boast three levels and will be south of Dewey Avenue on the east side of 40th Street. It is expected to be completed in 2010.
One of Dr. El-Mohandes’ first tasks as dean will be to lead the college through its accreditation process next year. He is quite familiar with what accreditation involves having gone through it at GWU when it established its School of Public Health and Health Services in 1997. During its first four years, the school was accredited successfully. Its educational programs grew and its research portfolio expanded significantly going from $2 million to more than $10 million.
Prior to being named chairman of the department of prevention and community health at GWU in 2007, Dr. El-Mohandes served as interim chairman of the department for four years. During the past five years, the faculty size increased from 12 to 18, research grew from $1.2 million to $4 million, and at present 85 new students matriculate into the various programs in the department each year.
Dr. El-Mohandes has received uninterrupted research funding from the National of Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1994. During his career, he has received more than $15 million from federal agencies, including the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2001, he received the highest award given by GWU Medical Center when he was named the Distinguished Researcher of the Year.
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Dr. El-Mohandes also conducted a community-based randomized trial following health care utilization patterns of minority residents in Washington and testing the efficacy of a home-delivered intervention targeting women who had used no prenatal care or used it poorly.
From 1995 to 2005, Dr. El-Mohandes acted as technical adviser to the Healthy Mother-Healthy Child Project in Egypt. During that time, he and his team trained more than 650 Egyptian nurses and physicians in basic and advanced neonatal care. The project paid great dividends for Egypt as it was recognized as the No. 1 country in the world for its success in reducing its infant mortality rates by more than 50 percent.
Dr. El-Mohandes believes that no field of study requires greater interdisciplinary collaboration than public health.
“The challenges that we face in the 21st century require innovative solutions and full partnership with the communities suffering from the heaviest disease burden and least access to services,” he said. “These communities are best served when we are willing to listen and learn from them as well as share our knowledge with them.”
For the past 20 years, Dr. El-Mohandes has collaborated with the Department of Health in the District of Columbia, and he currently serves as chairman of the department’s Advisory Council for Perinatal Health and Interconceptional Care. He said he has every intention to work closely when the Douglas County Health Department and other health departments across the state when he gets to Nebraska.
He currently has two active grants through the NICHD, including a $3.5 million trial aimed at assisting smokers during pregnancy to quit. The trial is one of the first in the United States to offer pregnant smokers the transdermal nicotine skin patch if they fail to quit using behavioral techniques.
During his prodigious research career, Dr. El-Mohandes has published more than 40 articles and nearly 70 abstracts for scientific journals, and he has been an invited speaker to more than 100 international, national and regional conferences.
An honors student at every level of his educational training, Dr. El-Mohandes earned three degrees, including his medical degree and his doctorate in pediatrics, from Cairo University. He later earned his master’s degree in public health from GWU focusing his work in epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. El-Mohandes is board certified in pediatrics as well as perinatal/neonatal medicine.
Dr. El-Mohandes will come to Omaha to participate in Chancellor Maurer’s strategic planning retreat on Thursday and meet with Douglas County Health Department officials on Friday.