Leadership Change: Retirement of Dr. Ken Kaushansky
January 4, 2021
Dear Stony Brook University Faculty and Staff,
I am writing to announce that Ken Kaushansky will be retiring from Stony Brook University. He will step down as Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine on January 31st, but will remain on as Senior Vice President of Health Sciences (SVPHS) through the end of the academic year (June 30th) to ensure a smooth transition and to aid in the broad Stony Brook Medicine efforts to manage what we hope to be the final acute phase of COVID-19 on Long Island.
Ken was appointed in July 2010 as Stony Brook’s Dean and Senior Vice President of Health Sciences. While at Stony Brook, he oversaw a realignment of the School of Medicine, the Clinical Practice Plan, and University Hospital, fostering cooperation, coordination and growth. This included the development of an expanded University Hospital with additional beds, the Children’s Hospital, the new site of the Stony Brook Cancer Center and the Medicine and Research Translation building.
Ken and his team have created a true healthcare system, growing from the single hospital and 800 faculty physicians, practicing almost exclusively within 3 miles of campus, to four hospitals, over 1000 faculty physicians and over 150 affiliated physicians, practicing in approximately 200 sites all through Suffolk County. During this time the quality of healthcare delivered by our faculty and staff has also excelled, with University Hospital having been deemed one of the top 100 hospitals in the US for the past two years by Healthgrades, whose rankings are based entirely on patient outcomes, as well as a top 100 hospital in three major categories of care for the past six consecutive years. Additionally, access to care has been enhanced through the efforts begun under Ken’s leadership related to the Suffolk County Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program, which forms the basis for our most recent medical quality initiative, the clinically integrated network.
Under his leadership, the Renaissance School of Medicine enhanced its curriculum and raised the quality of the student body. On the research front, the impact of the RSOM has grown in the strategic areas of cancer, the neurosciences, and infections and immunity--which has aided in our studies of the SARS-CoV2 virus and COVID-19. The addition of new research space, a state-of-the-art imaging center and new interdisciplinary efforts like the Department of Biomedical Informatics and the Institute for Engineering Driven Medicine set the stage for additional growth in biomedical research.
Ken’s plans allow us to conduct an orderly transition to new leadership. I will soon solicit nominations for an Interim Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine, and outline plans for a national search for our next Senior Vice President of Stony Brook Medicine. I appreciate the support of SBM leaders and colleagues in making this a smooth and successful transition.
In the meantime, I want to close by noting that Ken’s impact on this institution and on healthcare on Long Island will be felt for years to come. There will be ample opportunity over the coming months to recognize his professional contributions to Stony Brook. In the meantime, please join me in thanking and wishing Ken the very best as he wraps up a significant Stony Brook career.
Maurie McInnis
President