The University of St. Thomas announced Monday that it is launching a new College of Health and has appointed Dr. Maykao Hang as its founding dean.
“We’re really excited,” said University of St. Thomas president Julie Sullivan. “This is a space that St. Thomas had thought about moving into for a number of years. It was part of our strategic plan that we passed five years ago, and I’m really excited to see it come to fruition.”
The school, which is the largest private university in Minnesota and has campuses in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Rome, will also be adding a nursing program, something Sullivan said it has never had.
The initial three pillars of the College of Health will be the existing school of social work, the existing graduate program in professional psychology and the new nursing school which will open in about two years, Sullivan said.
The new college is unique in that it mirrors the changing health care sector, creating programs to treat patients as a whole — physically, mentally and spiritually.
“We really believe a school needs to have nurses that tend to physical health, counselors that attend to mental health, and social workers that attend to your connection to community,” Sullivan said. “You need all those people across those disciplines to really care for the whole person.”
FINDING A LEADER
Over a year’s time, the school interviewed multiple candidates from all over the country to head the new college and eventually decided that having someone who understands the Twin Cities and is great with innovative programs would be the best choice.
“They pursued and recruited me,” said Hang, who initially was surprised at being offered the position. She has worked at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, a nonprofit community organization in St. Paul for 13 years and has been its CEO for nearly a decade.
“Curiosity is what got me there,” she said. “I was just open to exploring and thinking about it.”
Sullivan acknowledged that Hang doesn’t have a traditional health care background but doesn’t see that as a drawback.
“She stood out head and shoulders above any other candidate that we have considered,” Sullivan said. “In terms of her background, she has been a leader in systems redesign. She has been a pioneer in developing new models. She knows our community very well.”
Hang has been around health delivery systems and health care her entire career, she said.
“I don’t think it’s a disadvantage,” she said. “It’s a different perspective. I would say 80 to 90 percent of what creates good health actually happens in the community, rather than in a health care delivery system.”
FROM LEADING ONE INSTITUTION TO ANOTHER
Hang said her time at Wilder has prepared her for this new challenge. Founded in 1906, the human services agency provides programs and services such as mental health support, a behavioral health clinic, preschool, healthy aging services, community leadership programs, supportive housing, research for other agencies and consulting services.
“I think it’s given me a deep understanding of what families truly need to stay healthy,” she said. “All the work I’ve done has been really rooted in people and systems.”
Hang said she has mixed emotions about leaving Wilder but is intrigued by the opportunity to be able to influence the next generation going into what she calls “the fields of altruism.”
Hang will be with Wilder for another month. She will start at St. Thomas on a part-time basis Oct. 7 and transition to full-time Nov. 4. Wilder’s board will begin a search for its new president.
Sullivan said the College of Health will most likely be located at the Minneapolis campus. The school does not anticipate the new college to dramatically grow overall enrollment at St. Thomas, though a better idea of the number of students will be known when the nursing program plans are solidified.