Shelley Berkley poses at Touro University Nevada in Henderson Thursday, June 8, 2023. The former congresswoman is stepping down as the senior vice president of the Touro University system and is running for mayor of Las Vegas.
Sunday, June 11, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Shelley Berkley is retiring, then, she hopes, immediately coming out of retirement.
The former seven-term congresswoman from Las Vegas, is stepping down June 30 as chief executive and senior vice president of the Touro University system. It’s a post she took on in 2022 after leading Touro University Nevada, private health sciences-focused university in Henderson, and the Touro system’s Western division since 2013.
But Berkley, who spent decades in elected office before her time at Touro, is setting her sights on the office of mayor of Las Vegas. The seat opens next year with the retirement of Carolyn Goodman, who has been mayor since 2011.
Berkley, who began her career as a practicing attorney, was first elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1983 and then served on the Nevada Board of Regents from 1990 to 1998.
From 1999 to 2013, Berkley was in Washington representing a congressional district in the heart of the Las Vegas Valley. After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2012, she had to find something else that was purposeful, she said during a recent interview with the Sun.
“I had accepted a position with a law firm in town that I thought would be a good fit when I received a very fortuitous phone call from the executive vice president of Touro University in New York, asking if I would be interested in being the CEO and senior provost of Touro (in Nevada),” said Berkley, 72.
“I actually knew my predecessor very well. I was on the Board of Regents and on the committee that hired Carol Harter to be president (of UNLV). Her husband was Dr. Mike Harter, who was my predecessor (at Touro). I knew that he wanted to retire but had promised Touro that he would not retire until they found a replacement. I wasn’t shocked at the call that they were looking for somebody; I was shocked that they called me.”
Berkley said she reminded Touro’s top leadership that she had no academic medical background — she joked that being married to a physician wasn’t a qualification. But they wanted to talk, so she traveled to New York as a courtesy.
Within weeks, she accepted the position.
“I started thinking, when will I have another time at my stage in life to do something so outside of my comfort zone? I had no idea if I could do the job,” she said. “But it was the challenge and the idea that it would be something so completely different from what I was accustomed to. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.”
When Berkley started at Touro in 2014, the university graduated 135 doctors of osteopathy from a successful but physically modest campus. Leveraging contacts and her business savvy, Berkley raised Touro’s profile to now graduate 180 doctors every year and turned the campus from a converted warehouse to a cohesive, modern university.
Touro boasts a 100% match rate, connecting medical students to their preferred residencies. About 50 students this year took residencies in Nevada, a key indicator in determining whether they will have long-term careers in a state that has long lacked enough physicians for its population.
To accommodate the growing student population, and additional or expanded postgraduate programs in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician’s assistant, and even nonhealth fields like a master’s in education in partnership with the Clark County School District, Berkley also shepherded the university’s capital campaign.
She’s proud of the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, a multidisciplinary, one-stop source for diagnostic services, therapy and supportive resources for families whose young children have autism or other developmental disorders. She’s also proud of the onsite community health clinic and the mobile clinics that allow students to bring health care to people living on the streets.
She additionally helped launch a master’s in health sciences program geared toward former military medics who need the traditional academics to thrive in medical school.
And following the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip, Touro opened the Stephen J. Cloobeck Regional Center for Disaster Life Support to give first-responder medical training.
One of her biggest sources of pride, she said, is the Michael Tang Regional Center for Clinical Simulation, an ultramodern simulated hospital unit with exceptionally lifelike mannequins that can talk, cry, bleed, register a heartbeat, accept medication and give birth.
Berkley sat down with the Sun to discuss her time at Touro and her vision for Vegas.
What are you most proud of during your time at Touro?
When I got here, nobody knew that Touro even existed, and that is not the case anymore. I don’t want to overstate it. I inherited a university that was operating in the black, and all of our programs were accredited. Under my watch, all of our programs have been reaccredited. We are still operating in the black. And in addition to that, we have been able to branch out and create a remarkably welcoming environment to learn. I have tremendous satisfaction knowing that I am helping to educate the next generation of health care providers for the state of Nevada. It’s very important to lead a purposeful life. For the last nine and a half years, that has been my purpose.
How will your time with Touro prepare you for getting back into political waters?
I have become more confident in my abilities since coming to Touro. Again, I had no idea if I could do this job. And I proved to myself that there was more to me than just a politician. I was able to prove that not only to the community, but more importantly, I proved it to myself.
Why did you decide to go back toward politics?
My leaving Touro was a decision that was made last year separate and apart from my decision to run for mayor. It just so happens that the timing worked out.
In wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life, because I’m certainly not one to sit home, I started thinking, What do I love most? Of everything that I could do, what do I love? I love public service. And I believe you should do what you love for as long as you can.
I would not go back to Washington. I’m very happy with our congressional delegation. Legislature, I’ve done that as well. Board of Regents, I did that as well. What haven’t I done? I haven’t done municipal government. And I always thought about being mayor.
My congressional district overlaid the city of Las Vegas, plus I had North Las Vegas. So there isn’t an issue in the city that I didn’t deal with for seven terms as a member of the United States Congress. I know the community well, all of the disparate groups, and I’ve maintained good relations with everybody. I’m not starting from zero, should I be fortunate enough to win the election. I could hit the ground running on Day One.
What are your top priorities for Las Vegas?
There’s three things that people are talking about. They’re talking about the homeless challenge; they’re talking about affordable housing; they’re talking about crime.
I think Las Vegas will see explosive growth and development over the next 10 years. I would imagine that it would take a steady hand to move us forward, and in a way where everybody has the opportunity to benefit from the success that Las Vegas is going to experience over the next 10 years.
The city of Las Vegas is creating a very important medical district. After nine and a half years at Touro, I think I am very qualified to help the city in working with UNLV and UMC to provide not only outstanding medical education, but a very strong medical community. That’s a very important issue right now – access to affordable health care, and quality, affordable health care. The other thing that might come up over the next 10 years is breaking up the Clark County School District should the voters determine that the municipalities should be responsible for the school district in their jurisdiction. I think with my background and education, that I could help lead the city when it comes to education, should that occur.
