Zach Wendling
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated.
LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents unanimously tapped the chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center as its priority candidate Wednesday for the next NU president.
Jeffrey Gold, who has served as UNMC chancellor since 2014, will go through a 30-day public vetting period before an expected confirmation vote at the board’s April 19 meeting.
Gold, if confirmed, would be the ninth NU system president, filling the role after former NU President Ted Carter left for The Ohio State University on Dec. 31.
Gold concurrently served as chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Omaha for four years and is NU’s current chief academic officer, serving as a liaison between NU and the regents.
A graduate from the Cornell University College of Engineering with a degree in theoretical and applied mechanics, Gold earned his medical degree from the Will Cornell College of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at The New York – Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
He has been certified by the American Boards of Surgery and Thoracic Surgery, specializing in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, and is licensed in Nebraska, Ohio, New York and New Jersey.
Gov. Jim Pillen, a former regent, blasted his former governing board last week for slow walking the presidential search. As a regent, Pillen led the 2019 search that brought Carter to NU. That search took 214 days from the time NU President Hank Bounds announced his departure to Carter being named priority candidate.
With Wednesday’s announcement, the most recent search clocked out at 211 days.
Regents universally praised Gold as the right pick to take NU to its next chapter, with Regent Elizabeth O’Connor of Omaha stating NU is at a “crossroads.”
“As an experienced leader in education, I firmly believe that Dr. Gold is poised to help us take advantage of these opportunities and to build a university for Nebraska’s future,” O’Connor said.
Regent Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City: “I do think this is going to leave us at a point where we can step forward with competence and we can proceed onward with making the university that best place to be for our students and for our state of Nebraska.”
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Regent Paul Pechous said Gold is a champion for NU and has proven as much over his last 10 years of service. Under his leadership, Pechous said, he looks forward to Gold “continuing to be a champion for our students.”
Gold received praise from State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, a former hospital administrator, who said Gold has taken UNMC “to a new level.”
“He’s smarter than hell,” said Riepe, who worked with Gold as chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.
Gold will be available at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Nebraska Examiner senior reporter Paul Hammel contributed to this report.
UNMC growth and expansion
University of Nebraska Medical Center Chancellor Jeffrey Gold has been at the helm during unprecedented UNMC growth and a multibillion-dollar flurry of building initiatives on and around its midtown Omaha home campus.
At the end of last year, he gathered with area officials to celebrate the start of the six-story so-called $105 million “CORE” facility (Campus Operations & Research Excellence), which is expected to open in 2026. That facility — along with other developments ongoing or planned along the Saddle Creek corridor — could expand the UNMC footprint by roughly 1.5 million square feet of building space, the medical center’s officials have said.
Officials called that unprecedented growth for the public medical center’s midtown Omaha base, whose building space now spans about 10 million square feet.
Gold has said that growth is essential to maintain momentum reflected in rising student enrollment, research and clinical care for Nebraskans as well as others.
UNMC also has launched projects designed to expand its rural presence.
A $85 million rural medical school, for example, is expected to open in 2025 in Kearney and has been touted as a sign of Nebraska’s effort to grow the health care workforce in its rural communities.
— Nebraska Examiner senior reporter Cindy Gonzalez