Joe 'Skip' Garcia gives up oversight of University of Arizona medical schools

Dr. Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia will resign his post as senior vice president for health sciences at the University of Arizona, overseeing its medical schools.

The UA announced the resignation Thursday afternoon, following months of scrutiny. Garcia, who is one of the highest paid employees at the UA, will continue to receive his $870,000 annual salary for two more years under terms of his contract. He will remain working at the UA as a professor at the UA College of Medicine-Tucson and as a researcher.

Garcia’s high-profile presence at the UA includes overseeing the university’s two medical schools — one in Tucson and one in Phoenix. They are separately accredited and currently are the only allopathic medical schools in a state with an existing and projected doctor shortage.

“This is a great opportunity for a fresh start,” said Cary Pfeffer, a Phoenix resident, author and owner of a consulting firm who sat on a community advisory board to the Phoenix medical school for several years.

“I think the people who have been supportive of medical education at the U of A will be watching this closely and enthusiastically hoping for a good person to take his spot.”

Phoenix an issue

Garcia was hired in 2013 with an expectation that he’d infuse the university with millions of dollars in research grant funding and build up the UA as a leader in genetic research and an economic engine for the state.

He came to the UA from the University of Illinois, where he served as vice president for health affairs and as the Earl M. Bane Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Bioengineering.

His research expertise is the prevention and treatment of inflammatory lung injury. When he was hired, UA officials said his salary was within the range for comparable positions.

Dr. William M. Crist, who had previously held the post of UA senior vice president of health services, was paid $650,000 a year. However, his job description was different in scope than Garcia’s. Crist retired in 2011.

One of the sources of conflict for Garcia was the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, which opened in 2007 in three buildings that were at one time Phoenix Union High School. Dr. Stuart D. Flynn was appointed interim dean in 2008 and was named dean in 2009.

Flynn served in that position until 2016, and had a strong following of supporters. When he left earlier this year, so did his leadership team. That’s when public concerns about his boss — Garcia — intensified, leading to an independent review of governance at the UA medical schools ordered by the Arizona Board of Regents.

The Phoenix medical school has a smaller budget and smaller class size than the medical school in Tucson, which was founded in 1967.

The medical school is on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, which is on prime downtown property owned by the city of Phoenix. All three state-funded Arizona universities have functions there. But it’s the UA that dominates the 30-acre property, having invested nearly $450 million in campus building projects.

Flynn, who grew the class size at the Phoenix campus from 24 to 80, came to the College of Medicine-Phoenix from the Yale University School of Medicine, where he was a professor of pathology and surgery, as well as a researcher and academic leader. In 2004, he received Yale’s Teacher of the Year Award and “America’s Top Physician’s Award” from the Consumers’ Research Council of America in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

“My hope is we can look forward and really keep moving ahead,” Pfeffer said. “The most important thing is that some fresh leadership will be will be in a critical role within the university.”

$595 million budget

In addition to the medical schools, Garcia’s role as senior vice president for health sciences includes overseeing the UA College of Pharmacy, the UA College of Nursing, and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The total health sciences budget is $595 million per year.

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Earlier this year, the Arizona Board of Regents contracted a law firm to conduct a report on concerns about the leadership of the medical schools. The report cost $180,000 in public money, but the board of regents, which is the governing body for the state’s public university system, has so far refused to release the report to the public.

The decision to do a report was announced after the regents convened in August to address increasing scrutiny of the medical schools and their leadership.

Public criticism of the UA medical school leadership began after Flynn announced in March that he was leaving to be the founding dean of a new medical school in Texas. Shortly after, five members of Flynn’s leadership team, including the associate dean of admissions and the vice dean of academic affairs, announced their departures.

Critics say it is unheard of for virtually the entire leadership team of a medical school to leave at once. Garcia responded that such departures are common in academic medicine.

After Flynn and his staff announced they were leaving, the 4,000-member Arizona Medical Association, which has a membership of physicians and medical students, called for an independent investigation.

The association expressed concern that the departures could affect the school’s attempt to see full accreditation, a process that is ongoing.

The association asked for exit interviews with the departed deans and publicly called on the Board of Regents to initiate an investigation into “any U of A organizational impediments or policies that contributed to the departures of the well-respected and quality team that was in place.”

Research portfolio

As further fuel to the scrutiny, Garcia attracted public attention in August when he was the subject of an Arizona Republic article. The article focused on his travel expenses, including a chauffeured car that costs $475 or more for trips between Tucson and Phoenix.

Arizona Medical Association Executive Vice President Chic Older said Thursday that both medical schools are extremely important to the state and the association will be closely watching any leadership changes moving forward.

In its news release Thursday, UA officials said that Garcia would be resigning his administrative position to devote more time to being a medical school professor and to his expanding research portfolio. Garcia holds a tenured appointment as the Dr. Merlin K. DuVal Professor of Medicine in the UA College of Medicine-Tucson.

In a prepared statement, Hart said that Garcia’s leadership will be missed, but that she is “extremely happy” that Garcia has decided to continue his work as a, “world class physician scientist and teacher, and that his impact on the University of Arizona will continue for years to come.”

Garcia said in a prepared statement that his first love is cutting-edge clinical and translational research and clinical care, and science-based teaching for the next generation.

“I am proud to have been able to have had such a strong impact on health science at the University of Arizona and am pleased to be able to continue to contribute to this important effort through my scientific research, teaching and clinical work,” his statement says.

Garcia will return to the faculty full time in January. An interim senior vice president will be named soon.

UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson said he expects a search committee will be convened to find Garcia’s replacement. Sigurdson said Garcia was not available to comment Thursday. Garcia did not respond to a call from the Star to his cellphone.

The Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday issued a statement thanking Garcia for his, “demonstrated excellence and integrity.” The regents credited Garcia for helping secure the UA’s affiliation agreement with Phoenix-based Banner Health in 2015 and for spearheading a dramatic increase in federal research grants, including the awarding of the National Institutes of Health Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program — $43.3 million over five years.

“The regents thank Dr. Garcia for his leadership, service and dedication to excellence across the tripartite missions of education, patient care, and research,” the statement says. “The UA Health Sciences is on an outstanding trajectory, and the board remains fully committed to assuring its continued success.”