ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman has named noted physician, researcher and health care leader Robert P. Kelch to serve as the University’s executive vice president for medical affairs and lead the U-M Health System, pending the approval of the Board of Regents.

Kelch will be returning to the U-M—where he received his medical training and spent nearly all his professional career—after nine years in health leadership roles at the University of Iowa. He succeeds Lazar Greenfield, M.D., who has served as interim EVPMA since August 2002.

In his new role, Kelch will oversee all three components of the U-M Health System: the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, which have more than 11,000 employees and a 2003 operating budget of $1 billion; the U-M Medical School, which has more than 2,100 faculty and 1,500 students and trainees, and received more than $290 million in research awards in fiscal year 2002; and the M-CARE managed care organization, which has 203,000 members. All three are ranked among the best in the nation.

Kelch will begin his term on Sept. 15, pending approval by the Regents.

“Bob Kelch is an outstanding administrator and physician-scientist who is eminently qualified to lead our health system,” Coleman said. “I had the distinct pleasure of working with Bob at the University of Iowa and I saw firsthand his accomplishments as dean and vice president. He established a model partnership between the medical college and the hospitals and clinics, greatly improved fund-raising, developed new scientific and educational facilities, and oversaw a significant enhancement in the national stature of that health system. He has broad vision, a deep commitment to the missions of academic medicine, humane understanding and a love for the University of Michigan. I look forward to working with him again.”

Kelch has most recently served as vice president of health affairs at the University of Iowa since the position’s creation in November 2002, with full oversight of the Hospitals and Clinics, the Carver College of Medicine, the Hygienic Laboratory and strategic planning, capital planning, and fund-raising for the health science campus, which includes all healthcare schools and units at the university.

Kelch had been vice president for statewide health services from 2001 to 2002, dean of the Carver College of Medicine from 1994 until Feb. 1 of this year and professor of pediatrics since his arrival at Iowa in August 1994.

“Returning to my alma mater to help lead one of the world’s best medical centers is a wonderful and exciting opportunity for me. I am eager to rejoin the Michigan team and I am especially pleased to have the opportunity to work once again with President Coleman.

“Today, all academic health centers are confronted with daunting challenges. However, the numerous strengths and stability of the University of Michigan Health System position it well for a future replete with successes,” he said. “Michigan’s clear and firm commitment to excellence for all aspects of its mission—education, research, and patient care—serves as an outstanding model for academic medical centers and it will serve us well as we adjust to current challenges and plan for the future.”

During his time at Iowa, Kelch oversaw a more than 100 percent increase in National Institutes of Health funding for research in the medical college, construction of major new educational and research facilities, development of a new medical school curriculum and a significant restructuring, expansion and enhancement of health services. Under his leadership, fund-raising was greatly enhanced and the college of medicine obtained a $90 million naming gift, the largest gift in the university’s history.

A noted endocrinologist who has written more than 110 scientific publications, three books and nearly 100 book chapters, Kelch has specialized in studying the hormones involved in growth and sexual maturation. While serving in leadership roles at the University of Iowa, he continued to treat patients in the pediatric endocrinology clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Iowa.

Kelch was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine in 1996 and has been named repeatedly to The Best Doctors in America. He is a past chairman of the American Board of Pediatrics and a past president of the Society for Pediatric Research. In addition, he is a past member of the executive council of the American Association of Medical Colleges and currently chairs its advisory panel on research.

His accomplishments at Iowa, combined with his notable credentials and his long history at the U-M, convinced the EVPMA search committee that Kelch was the right leader for the U-M’s health and bioscience endeavors, said committee chair Timothy R. B. Johnson, M.D., who is the Bates Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“The committee was impressed by his record of achievement at the University of Iowa as dean and recently in a similar position to the one he will hold at Michigan,” Johnson said. “He has an outstanding record as a researcher, scientist, clinician and academic leader. At Iowa, he led a health system that faced many of the same issues we face here and he worked to bring the hospital and medical school together for a better result.”

Coleman thanked the 16-member search committee, drawn from many areas of the University, for its work. “Forming the permanent administrative leadership for our University is an important task, especially in this time of turmoil in health care. The committee has helped identify a strong leader for our health system,” she said.

The position of EVPMA, and its responsibility for leadership of the U-M Health System, was created in 1997 in an effort to coordinate and unify the activities of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, the U-M Medical School and M-CARE. The first person to hold the office was Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., who returned to research in July 2002 after steering UMHS through five years of clinical and research growth, and financial stability.

The return to Ann Arbor and the U-M will be a welcome one for Kelch. A native of Detroit, he first came to the U-M in 1963 as a medical student after receiving his undergraduate degree that year at the Monteith College of Wayne State University.

As the valedictorian of his University of Michigan Medical School class in 1967, and as the recipient of the top award for medical residents at the U-M Hospital in 1970, Kelch showed his leadership and academic excellence from an early point in his medical career.

After postgraduate laboratory research training in pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco in 1970 through 1972, Kelch returned to the U-M Medical School as an assistant professor of pediatrics in 1972. He rose to associate professor in 1975 and professor in 1977.

In 1979, he was named acting chair of pediatrics and became chair in 1981—a position he held until his departure for Iowa in 1994.

Kelch was named physician-in-chief of the U-M’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in 1983 and chief of clinical affairs for all U-M hospitals in 1989, as well as becoming assistant dean for clinical affairs that year. He held those positions until 1992.

Kelch is married to Jeri Anne (Parker) Kelch, and they have two children, Randall and Julie, and four grandchildren.

For more information on the University of Michigan Health System, visit www.med.umich.edu