OHSU names single finalist for president after another candidate drops out

Oregon Health & Science University on Thursday named Dr. Shereef Elnahal, a former health official under the Biden administration, as the sole remaining candidate to lead the institution during a time when the institution faces critical financial and cultural challenges.

The state’s only academic medical center is looking to establish stable leadership only weeks after a failed hospital merger added to its fiscal stress.

The university had planned to introduce two finalists on Thursday, but one candidate withdrew late Wednesday, just hours before their name would have been made public.

Elnahal recently served as undersecretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs where he advocated for the use of psychedelics for mental health treatment and championed its research within the agency. Before his role with the federal government, Elnahal was president and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, where OHSU credits him for improving patient safety and restoring financial stability.

Elnahal received his medical degree and master of business administration at Harvard University. Before that, he got his bachelor’s degree in biophysics at Johns Hopkins University.

Elnahal addressed the OHSU community Thursday morning in a virtual town hall, where he laid out his vision for the institution. He emphasized transparency, trust-building and a renewed focus on OHSU’s role as an “anchor institution” for Oregon.

“My job would primarily be to make you successful,” he said. “We need to be too impactful to fail, too invested in the community to fail.”

He described the current landscape of academic medicine as one of “unprecedented challenges,” including a national decline in public trust, threats to federal research funding, and rapid technologist shifts such as the rise of artificial intelligence.

Elnahal said his first priority would be to listen to frontline workers, students and faculty, and to strengthen community partnerships.

“The organization’s problems aren’t defining — they’re wounds that can heal with the team’s hard work on rebuilding trust,” he said.

More

health

• Readers respond: Cuts affect the fragile and frightened

• Dear Doctor: What is coronary atherosclerosis, and can it be treated without surgery?

• Oregon to get $66M from Sackler family, Purdue Pharma in opioid settlement

The next president will inherit a leadership vacuum left by the

abrupt resignation

of Dr. Danny Jacobs last fall. Jacobs had served as president for six years, a tenure marked by internal conflict culminated in a no-confidence vote by faculty at the School of Medicine.

After Jacobs stepped down, the board moved to install medical school dean Dr. Nate Selden as president without conducting a national search — a move that drew public opposition from Gov. Tina Kotek and was ultimately scrapped. The university instead

appointed Steve Stadum

as interim president.

Instability continued in December, when Dr. Brian Druker, renowned for developing the leukemia drug Gleevec,

resigned as director of the Knight Cancer Institute

. In his resignation letter, Druker said OHSU had “forgotten” its mission and was no longer a place for cutting-edge research.

Elnahal addressed those concerns directly, warning that proposed cuts to National Institutes of Health funding posed an existential risk to OHSU’s mission. He pledged to use his federal experience and connections in Washington, D.C., to advocate for OHSU’s interests and pursue new models of public-private collaboration.

“The biggest threat OHSU faces is not financial — it’s the potential collapse of federal research funding,” he said. “Profitable growth I know will be possible with the excellent clinical services. But I would do my absolute best and focus most of my time on trying to preserve and enhance the research and education mission.”

Elnahal also expressed support for accelerating the commercialization of medical innovation by OHSU researchers, investing in artificial intelligence and protecting the institution’s core educational mission.

“Academic health centers must accelerate the impact of their science and approach innovation boldly,” he said.

The search for a new leader comes as OHSU grapples with the fallout of a

failed merger with Legacy Health

.

The deal, announced in 2023, was framed as a lifeline for Legacy, which was struggling financially. But after months of public scrutiny and internal debate, the two systems called off the merger in April.

Since the merger was announced, the narrative has flipped. OHSU is now projecting a $95 million loss for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30 — more than double the previous year’s shortfall.

The university

aims to cut that deficit to $45 million

in its 2025-26 fiscal budget, but that projection doesn’t account for major shifts in federal spending. Last year, OHSU cut 500 jobs to rein in costs — a move that added to the school’s morale problems among faculty and staff.

Following Thursday’s virtual presentation, members of the OHSU community were invited to provide feedback through an online survey.

OHSU’s board of directors must vote to approve a new president. Its next scheduled meeting is June 27.

About The Author