Panel will search for med school dean

A search committee to find a new dean for the University of Nevada School of Medicine is nearly formed and should be operational within two weeks, a Board of Regents committee was told Tuesday.

Dr. David Westfall, University of Nevada, Reno vice president of Academic Affairs, told members of the first meeting of the Health Education Committee that 27 people have been selected so far.

The search committee, he added, represents a cross section of the state that includes university faculty members, physicians, two university students and a soon-to-be-appointed faculty member from UNLV.

Dean Robert Daugherty resigned from his position in August. He had been dean of the medical school for 17 years. He will remain as dean until June 30, and a new dean will be sworn in on July 1.

"Of the people I contacted, no one hesitated to join the committee," Westfall said.

He expects the committee to immediately begin advertising nationwide for a dean once they have their first meeting.

Dr. Thomas Kozel, chair of the microbiology department in Reno, and Dr. William Zamboni, a plastic surgeon in Las Vegas, will be co-chairmen of the search committee.

In other business, Jane Nichols, vice chancellor of the school of medicine, said the university's first dental residency program will begin July 1.

Three out-of-state dental school graduates will do their two-year residencies at facilities being prepared at University Medical Center, 1800 W. Charleston Blvd., and at the university-owned Family Practice Center, 6375 W. Charleston Blvd.

UNLV President Carol Harter and other community leaders are currently lobbying to build a dental college on the Maryland Parkway campus. They plan to lobby the 1999 Legislature for funding.

Nichols said if the dental college is approved, the dental residency program will be relocated to UNLV.

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