Medical Center CEO and College of Medicine dean assumes new duties July 1, 2006
Hershey, Pa. -- Darrell G. Kirch will be the next president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Kirch, who has led Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center as its chief executive officer and Penn State College of Medicine as its dean since July 2000, informed Medical Center and College of Medicine staff that he will resign his current roles to accept the post. Kirch, who also serves as Penn State's senior vice president for health affairs, is expected to begin his new duties on July 1, 2006.
In a memo to staff Kirch said, "The AAMC is an organization to which I have been deeply committed, and it is both quite humbling and a very special honor to be asked to serve as its leader. My family and I are deeply grateful for the kind support you have given to us ever since we first visited Hershey almost six years ago, and our ties to this community will always remain strong. In the months to come, I pledge to work steadfastly with all of you to ensure that we remain solidly on our path to achieve even greater things for our unified campus and for Penn State."
Kirch and his leadership team are widely credited with revitalizing the institution and guiding it through a period of expansion. During his tenure, the College of Medicine received full accreditation for its education programs from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), and the Medical Center showed exceptionally solid fiscal results and dramatic growth in clinical activity, while total research funding for the Hershey campus grew from less than $55 million to more than $100 million in five years.
"For an organization such as the AAMC to select its future president from Penn State is a testament to the leadership of Dr. Kirch and his contributions to our University," said Penn State President Graham B. Spanier.
"Dr. Kirch has led our Medical Center and College of Medicine to notable success over the past several years. In the process he has earned great respect within the national health-care community," Spanier continued. "He is a natural choice to further advance the missions of teaching, research and patient care that are so vital to our nation's academic health centers. We are extremely proud and appreciative of his work and wish him well as he pursues this new challenge."
Ted Junker, chairman of the Medical Center's Board of Directors, also had high praise for Kirch. "From the beginning, Dr. Kirch articulated a clear vision for Penn State Hershey Medical Center and delivered on it. He showed great understanding of our challenges and to meet these challenges created and implemented bold solutions. He enhanced our collaborative spirit both within the Medical Center and throughout the central Pennsylvania region. The shared vision and organizational values he helped put in place are the foundation on which we will continue to build the Medical Center's promising future."
Before coming to Penn State, Kirch served as dean of the school of medicine at the Medical College of Georgia from 1994 to 2000. In 1995 he also became the dean of the School of Graduate Studies, and in 1998, he took on the additional role of senior vice president for clinical activities, a newly created position overseeing the hospitals and clinical practices of the institution. Earlier in his career, Kirch served in a number of leadership positions at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Washington, D.C., including as medical director of the Neuropsychiatric Research Hospital. He became acting scientific director of the NIMH in 1993.
Kirch is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he also completed his residency training in psychiatry.