Several alumni have raised concerns about the appointment of College Trustee Al Mulley '70 as the first director of the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, in light of the fact that he previously headed the search committee that selected College President Jim Yong Kim. Other alumni and Center co-founder James Weinstein argued that those concerns are unfounded, saying that Mulley is well-qualified for the position.
The Center will offer health care-related classes to undergraduates and introduce a master's degree program through the Tuck School of Business and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Mulley is currently the chief of the General Medicine Division and director of the Medical Practices Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and teaches as an associate professor of medicine and health policy at Harvard Medical School.
Former Trustee Todd Zywicki '88 said Dartmouth community members should be wary of Mulley's selection.
"Obviously one has to be concerned that the chairman of the Presidential Search Committee is being appointed to a fairly cushy job in President Kim's new Center," Zywicki said. "I hope the Board [of Trustees] took appropriate actions to make sure everything was on the up-and-up for this appointment."
Mulley's position as the head of the Presidential Search Committee was "unrelated to this appointment," according to Weinstein, who is also the co-president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and director of The Dartmouth Institute.
"I think time will disprove the skeptics," he said. "I think we, as a Dartmouth community, are fortunate to have Dr. Mulley."
Kim, Weinstein and others involved with the Center evaluated a wide variety of candidates for the position of director, Weinstein said.
Both Kim and Weinstein know Mulley and have collaborated with him in the past, according to Weinstein. He said Mulley stood out among the candidates evaluated by Kim, Weinstein and others for leadership of the center.
"I think he is an outstanding choice," he said. "I believe he will bring tremendous knowledge of Dartmouth historically, from both the student perspective and the trustee perspective."
Despite his skepticism, Zywicki said he thinks Mulley can succeed in the position.
"It seems plausible that he would be qualified for the job, but it still seems unusual to have the chairman of the search committee who only presented one name to the committee appointed to this position," Zywicki said.
Joe Malchow '08 said he thinks Mulley was a "natural choice for the directorship." Malchow is the founder of Dartblog, a Dartmouth-focused website that is often critical of College policies and decisions.
"I wouldn't anticipate that this should be a controversial appointment," Malchow said.
Mulley graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth. He earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School and his Masters of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University before doing his clinical training at MGH, The Dartmouth previously reported.
In 1989, Mulley founded the nonprofit Foundation of Informed Medical Decision Making to help patients make fully informed decisions about their health care, The Dartmouth previously reported.
When Mulley assumes the directorship Nov. 15, he will step down from his position as Trustee, as well as his positions on the Board of Overseers of Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Board of Trustees, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Created in May and funded by a $35 million anonymous gift, the Center will combine health care education and research, and allow for collaboration between the College, DMS, DHMC, the Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck.
