Dean of Dartmouth Medical School Andrew Wallace will not to seek a third term as dean, the College announced this week.
"There are things I wish we could have done as dean, but didn't," Wallace said in his letter last month to the DMS community. "There are aspirations I wish we could have met, but didn't."
Wallace made his decision was made following discussions with his family, College President James Freedman and Provost Lee Bollinger, he said in the memo.
"I am announcing my decision now so that the President can initiate a search for my successor in a timely manner," he wrote.
Wallace has served as the vice president for health affairs of Dartmouth College and, since 1990, as the 11th dean of DMS. His term will end in June 1998.
The College will begin its search for a new DMS dean early next year, Bollinger said.
Wallace wrote that his age played a role in his decision.
"By June of 1998 I will have reached my 63rd birthday and I will have completed two four-year terms as dean, which is the custom at Dartmouth," he wrote in the memo. "Holding a position such as dean until age 67, has frankly never been my plan, nor is it in Dartmouth's best interest."
Bollinger said he respects Wallace's decision not to seek a third term.
"He has had a very positive impact on the development of medical education at Dartmouth," Bollinger said. "He will be missed."
During his tenure, Wallace tried to draw connections between basic and clinical research and collaborate with the College. Wallace adopted the "New Directions" curriculum to better integrate basic and clinical experiences, expand problem-based learning and provide more flexibility, according to a College press release.
Wallace wrote he feels "exceedingly proud" to have been a "steward" of the improvements that DMS has experienced since 1990, when he first arrived as dean of DMS.
"There can be no question that we have the strongest students, faculty, and chairs in the school's history; an exciting new curriculum; an enviable research portfolio; and an endowment nearly double what it was six years ago," he wrote.
The College has offered Wallace a sabbatical at the conclusion of his term which he intends to accept in order to pursue "skills that will be of continuing use to Dartmouth," Wallace wrote.
Wallace earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Duke University. As the chief of cardiology at Duke, he founded a world renowned cardiac rehabilitation program, and Duke has honored him by building a clinic in his name.
In recognition of his contributions to medical education and academic health care, Wallace has been elected to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.
Freedman and Wallace could not be reached for comment.
