One day after the new president of the University of Connecticut started and in the same month Gov. Dannel Malloy launched an initiative to remake the UConn Health Center, the institution was rocked by a major leadership change.
Dr. Cato Laurencin — the dean of the UConn Medical School and the vice president of the UConn Health Center — told school officials on Thursday he will step down from both positions on July 1.
“I’m proud of the accomplishments we’ve had over the past three years. I believe that the future for the UConn Health Center is extremely bright, and look forward to working with you even more closely in the areas described above,” Laurencin wrote in a letter on Thursday.
Laurencin will remain with the university in his roles as CEO of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science and director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering. He will be the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery and continue to practice orthopaedic surgery at the Health Center.
In a letter to the UConn community, new university president Susan Herbst, who started Wednesday, said she will name Laurencin’s interim replacement shortly, and the university will launch a national search for his permanent replacement.
“(P)lease join me in thanking Dr. Laurencin for his outstanding efforts and his tremendous dedication to this university. I could not be more grateful for his contributions — locally and internationally — as a scholar, a physician, and a leader,” Herbst wrote.
Laurencin’s move comes on the heels of a new $864 million initiative by Gov. Malloy to increase the size and scope of the health center, including more bioscience research.
In 2010, Laurencin made $918,490 from his many positions at UConn, according to the Yankee Institute for Public Policy.
Laurencin joined UConn in 2008 and wrote in a letter he is proud of what the health center has accomplished under his leaders.
“Success in this arena is closely tied to our other successes: positive financial margins for the Health Center for the past two years, record setting grant awards over the past two years, and success in philanthropy. I want to thank the extraordinary teams of individuals who worked so hard with me to make all of this happen,” Laurencin wrote.
Laurencin is a highly acclaimed researcher, doctor and entrepreneur, particularly for his work with ligaments. In 2008, Scientific American named him one of the top 50 innovators in the country, and was named one of the top doctors in America each year from 2004 to 2006.
He holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, and in 1998 was named one of Princeton’s distinguished alumni.
Laurencin is the founder of New Haven medical start-up Soft Tissue Regeneration, which uses his technology to advance knee ligament reconstruction surgery.
In January, the Hartford Business Journal named him one of the Five Newsmakers To Watch in 2011 because of the efforts to remake the UConn Health Center for expanded research and patient care. At the time, Laurencin and the medical school were hoping for a $100 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to fund the initiative.
After UConn failed to get that grant — it went to The Ohio State University instead — Malloy stepped in with his $864 million proposal.
