 |
Dr. Cortas Resigns As Dean
 |
| VP Nadim Cortas |
With deep appreciation and much regret, President John Waterbury recently
announced the resignation of Dr. Nadim Cortas as the dean and vice president
for Medical Affairs. "All of us at AUB-faculty, students, staff,
and trustees-salute Dean Cortas for a job well done, and wish him many
moments of relaxation, coupled with the new adventures that surely await
him," said the president.
Having held that demanding position as dean since December 1999, Dr. Cortas
made a number of far-reaching changes in the academic and research activities
of the Faculty of Medicine over the last several years, during which time
the volume and quality of research output in the faculty increased markedly.
In addition, Dr. Cortas drafted and implemented a new medical practice
plan that revolutionized the finances of the faculty and the hospital.
With determination, he also promoted interdisciplinary programs in patient
care and put the hospital squarely on a course of financial balance. Crowning
those efforts was the recent accreditation of the hospital by the Joint
Commission International.
The AUB chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Thomas Q. Morris, who has
known the faculty and the hospital since 1982, paid Dean Cortas the following
tribute:
"Over the past decade the leadership of Nadim Cortas provided the
impetus for the return to excellence of the American University of Beirut
Medical Center. Through his recruitment of superb colleagues in both medicine
and nursing, his commitment to quality care and patient safety, his dedication
to the generation of new knowledge, and his elevation of the role of teaching,
he raised the standards at AUBMC to those officially recognized by American
accrediting agencies. On behalf of the Board of Trustees and particularly
myself, I wish to express our most sincere gratitude for his outstanding
achievements and best wishes for continued success."
Cortas will keep serving as Dean and Vice President of Medical Affairs
until a new Dean and Vice President takes up the position.