The Texas Tech University medical school in El Paso has a new leader.
Dr. Eric Rohren, a radiologist specializing in cancer imaging and chairman of the Radiology Department at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, will become the third dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine Oct. 1, Texas Tech officials announced June 4.
He will take over for Dr. Richard Lange, who remains president of the Texas Tech Health El Paso campus.
Lange has held his dual jobs since becoming president of the El Paso campus in 2014, just after it became a full-fledged university in the Texas Tech system.
Lange made his own decision to step down as dean to focus on his role as president of the entire Texas Tech Health El Paso campus, including development of the planned Texas Tech cancer-treatment center, according to a statement from Texas Tech El Paso’s communications department.
Since the medical school’s opening 16 years ago, Texas Tech’s Central El Paso campus has added nursing and dental schools, and a graduate school of biomedical sciences.
Dean oversees school with $269M budget
As dean, Rohren will oversee the academic, clinical, and administrative operations of the medical school.
He will oversee a college with almost 500 medical students, 240 faculty members, and an annual budget of just under $269 million.
He also will oversee the Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso medical group, with doctors and other personnel in several El Paso clinics, according to the Texas Tech posting for the dean’s job.
Search committee selects four finalists
Rohren was selected after a national search, started in fall 2023, involving the Chicago area-based WittKieffer executive search firm and an 11-member search committee.
The committee had five faculty members and administrators from the Foster school, the deans of the El Paso campus’ nursing, dental, and biomedical graduate schools, a Texas Tech System official, Lange’s senior executive assistant, and one community member: Tracy Yellen, CEO of the Paso del Norte Community Foundation.
More than 40 people applied for the dean’s job, Texas Tech officials reported. The search committee selected four finalists who took part in campus visits and in-person interviews.
Rohren got medical degree from Mayo Clinic
Rohren received his medical degree from the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, and did his medical residency in diagnostic radiology at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina.
He’s an expert on PET (Positron Emission Tomography) radioactive imaging and computed tomography imaging, or CT scans, for detecting cancer and guiding treatment, according to the Texas Tech announcement.
That expertise is expected to be valuable for Texas Tech’s future El Paso cancer-treatment center, which will have a state-of-the-art imaging facility, the Texas Tech announcement noted.
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Rohren promises to focus on Borderplex needs
“His experience, leadership and vision are a perfect fit for the school’s foundation of service, innovation, and community-focused education,” Lange said in a statement.
The El Paso school was one of the first medical colleges in the United States to require students to learn medical Spanish as part of the curriculum. The school integrates students into the diverse El Paso-area community along the United States-Mexico border by having them take part in patient care at community clinics and at in-home visits, according to the Texas Tech El Paso website.
Rohren, in a statement, said he planned “to continue building the medical school’s impact, reach and reputation across the state of Texas and the country, while maintaining focus on the unique needs of the Borderplex region.”
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.
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This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Radiologist is new Texas Tech El Paso medical school leader; Richard Lange sheds one job
Reporting by Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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