Swarts named interim APRDP director

Keith Swarts

Keith Swarts will serve as interim director of UNMC’s Asia Pacific Rim Development Program (APRDP).

The announcement was made last week by Deb Thomas, vice chancellor for business and finance, and Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Swarts, who has been at UNMC for 42 years, has been serving as director of business services and recently served as interim associate vice chancellor for business and finance. He began his UNMC career as a budget analyst. As interim director of APRDP, he replaces Jialin Zheng, M.D., who is on a year-long sabbatical to serve as dean of Tongji University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China.

APRDP was developed in 2004 between UNMC and universities in China to enhance UNMC’s outreach abilities toward China and the Asian-Pacific regions. Today, UNMC has partners in Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Hainan and other parts of China, which, have yielded numerous health science conferences, faculty/student exchanges, the promotion of scientific and economic ties between China and UNMC/Nebraska Medicine and the state of Nebraska and training opportunities in such areas as cancer, family medicine and physical therapy.