Time out with T.O. – One fine dean

It’s not easy being dean.

“It’s the most difficult job on this campus,” said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D. “You have to deal with so many different constituencies — department chairs, divisions, departments, labs, space, students and post-docs.”

Tom O’Connor

The man knows. He served as dean of the UNMC College of Medicine from 1993 to 1998 before he became chancellor.

At the end of June, John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D., will step down after more than seven years as dean of the College of Medicine.

He’s loved every minute of it.

“Being dean is one challenge after the other,” Dr. Gollan said at his farewell reception last week. “Being dean is terrific, a joy.”

Dr. Gollan, who is 68, will return to the department of internal medicine as the Stokes-Shackleford Professor.

– College of Medicine Dean John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D., with his wife Rosanne, right, daughter Jackie Gollan, left, and granddaughter Isabel.

A world renowned expert in liver disease, Dr. Gollan said he can’t wait to go back to teaching and seeing patients.

He plans to hook up with his old friend, Mike Sorrell, M.D., UNMC’s longtime liver expert who spearheaded the recruitment of Dr. Gollan from Australia in 2001 when he was appointed chairman of the internal medicine department.

Looking back on Dr. Gollan’s term as dean, Dr. Maurer noted how Dr. Gollan:

• Recruited 11 different department chairpersons;
  
• Spent 4 ½ years negotiating an affiliation agreement and a pediatric practice plan with Children’s Hospital & Medical Center that will greatly enhance pediatric care in Nebraska – “A transformational event for this medical center and that hospital (Children’s),” Dr. Maurer said;
  
• Helped create the UNMC College of Public Health by giving up the department of preventive and societal medicine;
  
• Raised funds for the Sorrell Center locally and around the country; and
  
• Was a key player in getting a new Veterans Administration hospital in Omaha.

But, probably Dr. Gollan’s greatest feat, Dr. Maurer said, was how he maintained excellent relationships with UNMC’s hospital partner — The Nebraska Medical Center.

“The relationship between the medical school and the hospital is really special,” he said. “One is dependent on the other.”

It’s been a great run, no doubt. But, as Dr. Gollan said, “It’s time for me to move on … and recalibrate with my family.”

We wish you all the best, Dr. John. You deserve it.

Your native Aussies would probably put it this way: “Well done, mate. Well done.”