Zach Wendling and Cindy Gonzalez
Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
OMAHA — Dr. Jeffrey Gold on Wednesday recounted how he recently opened an email from a former cardiac patient whose life he helped save when she was only 2 days old.
The woman, on the 37th anniversary of her heart surgery in New York City, sent him photos of herself — rock-climbing, raising her three children — offering a glimpse of what resulted because of his hand as a pediatric and adult cardiac surgeon.
“That gives one a perspective of paying it forward, of real value,” Gold said, hours after he received a phone call telling him that he was voted as the priority candidate to serve as the next president of the University of Nebraska.
While he described his feelings as humbled and somewhat intimidated, Gold said during a media event that he is more thrilled at the opportunity to help and inspire another generation of young people “who really want to reach for something special.”
A Nebraskan for 10 years now — since he was tapped in 2014 to be chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center — Gold, 71, said he was prepared to remain as long as he is able at the helm of the entire NU system.
‘Welcoming organization’
A commitment to stay 10 years was among three must-haves that Gov. Jim Pillen conveyed to the NU Board of Regents for the person selected to fill the presidency, which has been vacant since the start of this year.
The other two criteria were that the person have Nebraska ties and a respect for values of conservative Nebraskans. Sources familiar with the search told the Nebraska Examiner earlier that conservative values in that case meant someone who would not advocate for the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that Pillen campaigned against in 2022.
Asked Wednesday about his thoughts on DEI, Gold said: “Frankly, we need to be a welcoming organization for all students and faculty and staff … where people feel they belong.”
He said he recognized that questions about diversity and inclusion are being tested widely across the country, in schools, Congress, state legislatures. He spoke of the value of learning from multiple opinions. And he said he’ll move forward with “balance and thought.”
“It’s going to take a fine art of what I would call threading the needle to get it exactly right,” Gold said.
Regents praise pick
Regents who commented Wednesday universally praised Gold as the right choice to take NU to its next chapter:
Regent Elizabeth O’Connor of Omaha: “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.”
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.”
UNL Student Regent Paul Pechous: Gold is a champion for NU and has proven as much over his last 10 years of service. Pechous said he looks forward to Gold “continuing to be a champion for our students.”
UNMC Student Regent Katie Schultis: “He’s a role model that I look up to and just the leader that I want to be as well.” She said Gold is student-focused and the “biggest champion for student initiatives.”
Regent Jim Scheer of Norfolk:“We’re not on the moon, so it’s not a step for mankind, but it sure as hell is a step for Nebraska.”Regent Paul Kenney of Amherst, board vice chair:“We found the best person available for our job.”
Earlier Wednesday, the NU Board of Regents unanimously selected Gold as its priority candidate. He’ll go through a 30-day public vetting period before an expected confirmation vote, perhaps as early at the board’s April 19 meeting.
Regent Rob Schafer of Beatrice, board chair, said he does not yet know whether the April 19 meeting may just miss the 30-day window that would allow regents to confirm Gold at the earliest time available. That could lead to a meeting a day or a week later for a final vote.
Schafer said Gold came into the system with “probably the most dynamic background” and was formidable from the start. As the presidential search progressed, the process became one of comparing other candidates against Gold.
If confirmed, Gold 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.
Leadership spots to fill
Gold’s departure from UNMC will mean all four of NU’s campus chancellors will have less than three years on the job come this summer. The university now has two leadership spots to fill: both Gold’s and that of UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen, who will retire after this academic year.
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.
A 211-day search
Pillen, a former regent, blasted the 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.
Pillen, in a short statement Wednesday afternoon, focused much of his praise on Interim NU President Chris Kabourek’s leadership since taking over Jan. 1. He also congratulated Gold on emerging as NU’s priority candidate.
“He has been a visionary, patient-focused leader for UNMC,” Pillen said of Gold.
The two have been at odds in the past, such as in 2021 when Pillen, during his campaign for governor, sought to prohibit the imposition of critical race theory on NU campuses.
Gold, joined by Carter and the other campus chancellors, rebuffed Pillen that summer in defense of academic freedom and the “freedom of expression for all members of the University of Nebraska community.” Pillen’s resolution ultimately fell two votes short of being adopted.
During Wednesday’s news conference, Gold said that he had spoken to Pillen, discussing such topics as the importance of building a state workforce. He described the governor as “extremely congratulatory.”
“Clearly his vision and my vision for the academic success of our state and the importance of the university are highly, highly aligned,” Gold said.
‘Smarter than hell’
Among Gold’s priorities, he said, is regaining membership in the American Association of Universities.
“That is a big part of the future challenge we all have together,” he said, though he offered little detail on how he’d pursue that goal.
He said AAU values are similar to his, including research and productivity of faculty and students. He said that NU has made strides in those areas and that he plans to work further on how progress in those areas is collected and reported.
Encouraging to Gold, he said, is that 57 of the 71 AAU member universities have large, thriving medical centers such as UNMC.
“So this is the company we need to keep and work on,” Gold said.
Gold received praise from several on Wednesday, including 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 in 2017-18 as chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.
Gold said he will spend time speaking to regents and others. He said he is excited to take on the position, with a competitive spirit and executing his own definition of leadership: “To make others’ dreams come true.”
“We need to compete and win in the classroom, in the laboratory, in clinics and on the cornfields,” he said.
Gold noted his own journey when talking about what he believes makes him the right person for this job.
He said he was a product of a large public high school in New York City and was a first-generation college student, dependent on scholarships, work study and student loans.
He said his work with volunteer boards and in various positions in the NU system — which took him to all parts of the state, and on some rides on combines and tractors — have allowed him a look at various urban and rural needs.
Gold said he is “incredibly well-aware that this is a time of great change and indeed of great stress and great challenge across all higher education.”
But he believes that NU is “rock solid” and prepared for headwinds.
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.
— From Nebraska Examiner senior reporter Cindy Gonzalez