Jay Alan Gershen, D.D.S., Ph.D. became the sixth president of the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), formerly Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) in January 2010.
He has initiated an ‘education for service' initiative in Northeast Ohio, an innovative health workforce development program that reduces student indebtedness, provides health care to underserved rural and urban communities and contributes to economic growth. In partnership with Cleveland State University, Dr. Gershen has also expanded NEOMED's regional mission to the Cleveland area, working with local hospitals, community health centers and other providers to create an urban primary care training program. In addition, he has provided leadership to expand NEOMED's research activities through investments in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and in the recruitment of renowned scientists.
Dr. Gershen serves on the boards of the Greater Akron Chamber, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, NorTech, Akron Tomorrow, Portage Development Board and the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron. He also serves as secretary/treasurer of the Sullivan Alliance to Transform America's Health Professions and is a member of the Board and Executive Committee of Research!America.
Before coming to Northeast Ohio, Dr. Gershen served as vice chancellor for external affairs for the University of Colorado Denver, and has served as the university's point person for business development, community affairs and external relations. He held positions on numerous business advisory boards in the Denver metropolitan area, state of Colorado and nationally. He was a professor in the UC Denver School of Dental Medicine from 1997-2010.
From 1997 to 2006, Dr. Gershen served as executive vice chancellor at the former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He played a key leadership role in the creation of the University of Colorado's 21st Century Health Sciences Center at the former Fitzsimons Medical Army Garrison (now the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus). The new campus focuses on patient-centered healthcare, collaborative research models and the education of health professionals as interdisciplinary teams. This $4.3 billion project is providing a public/private model for bioscience discovery and emphasizes the commercialization of basic/translational research. Dr. Gershen worked to formulate the current vision and strategic direction for the bioscience research park at Fitzsimons. The Anschutz Medical Campus and Fitzsimons are the largest medical construction projects in the nation and will generate $6 billion per year in economic activity at completion.
From 2000 to 2002, Dr. Gershen served as interim vice president for academic affairs and research for the University of Colorado. As the principal academic affairs and research officer for the UC system, he coordinated the development and review of undergraduate and graduate/professional programs. His responsibilities also included technology, diversity, external affairs and partnerships with the business sector. Dr. Gershen was responsible for initiating the reorganization of the technology transfer program at the University of Colorado.
Dr. Gershen served on the faculty of the School of Dentistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and directed the Mobile Dental Clinic, which served children of migrant workers in rural California. As acting dean of the dental school (1995-1996), he was the first dental dean in the nation to gain graduate medical education (GME) support funds for all of the non-hospital based postdoctoral programs in the school. Before assuming full-time administrative positions, Dr. Gershen conducted research on issues relevant to dental education, health services and behavioral sciences, and he developed innovative teaching methods for behavioral science curricula. He conducted research regarding dental delivery systems and third-party financing and their effect on the quality of dental care.
Dr. Gershen served as president of the American Association of Dental Schools and chair of the National Affairs Committee of the American Association for Dental Research. He was responsible for initiating the major study of dental education conducted by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He also played a leadership role in securing AIDS reimbursement funds for the nation's dental education institutions. In addition, Dr. Gershen was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Institutional and Policy Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of the Healthcare Workforce.
Dr. Gershen holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a D.D.S. from the University of Maryland. He completed both a clinical specialty in pediatric dentistry and a Ph.D. in education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Concurrently, he was a postdoctoral scholar in child psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. In 1982, he was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship, sponsored by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.