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Chancellor to Appoint Board of Directors to Ensure UCSF’s Ability to Deliver on its Public Mission

The new UCSF board will serve as strategic advisors to the chancellor and, through the chancellor, to UC President Mark Yudof and the Board of Regents, Desmond-Hellmann told the Regents with members of her leadership team at her side at UCSF Mission Bay.

"Among the 10 campuses, UCSF is uniquely challenged as the only campus solely focused on the health sciences,' she told the Regents. "The crisis in health care, diminishing state support, rising student debt, escalating employee benefit costs and downward pressure on research funding have created a 'perfect storm' in the competitive health sciences marketplace which requires urgent action."

In January, UC President Yudof and UC Regent Chair Lansing approved the chancellor’s request to form a working group to examine ways in which a board could help direct the future of UCSF. She said the working group’s research and analysis demonstrated that there is value in creating a UCSF board that is specifically charged with the role of serving as UCSF's strategic partner.

"The working group proposed the appointment of a group of dedicated directors with operational and strategic expertise to guide UCSF through these challenging times," Desmond-Hellmann told the Regents.

The chancellor said she will return to the Regents in about six months to share the UCSF board's charter, membership and metrics for success.

"I see this as a pilot, something that will continue to evolve as we find the best way to work with this UCSF board," Desmond-Hellmann said. "One of the learnings that I've had through this process is that there’s interest from the chancellors, others in the system and I would like to share this as a pilot."

UC President Mark Yudof congratulated the chancellor and the working group for doing a "superb job" throughout the process of determining a governance structure that will help UCSF succeed. "This is really important,' he said. 'This is such a wonderful institution and we need to build up the expertise available to the chancellor."

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