I am pleased to announce that Denise Zang, MBA, FACMPE, has accepted our offer to become the Clinical Department Administrator for the Department of Internal Medicine, effective February 17. Stephen Blanchard, Interim CDA, will remain with us to aid in the transition through the end of March. We are all grateful for his stewardship since joining us last summer.

Ms. Zang joins us from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) in Madison, where she has served as Administrator for the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine since 2011. During her tenure, the division nearly doubled its faculty membership and nearly quintupled the number of advanced practice providers, all in just over seven years. She leaves the division staffed with 66 faculty members, 48 APPs, more than 40 researchers, and close to 20 general cardiology fellows. No stranger to oversight of a complex clinical footprint, Zang helped expand the UW division’s operation to three hospitals, five outpatient sites, and 13 regional locations. Zang has overseen a number of improvements in clinical operations, including a significant reduction in non-urgent patient wait times and the establishment of new capture tools ensuring providers were properly reimbursed for work performed. Zang has also demonstrated that she understands that faculty, provider, and staff wellness is an essential component of an organization’s success. She conducted regular assessments of staff wellbeing and drafted best practices documents that ensured predictability and fairness.

Midway through her tenure as Administrator for Cardiovascular Medicine, Zang believed that she needed a greater understanding of the operation of one of her division’s largest strategic partners, the SMPH’s Department of Surgery. She took a nearly 18-month leave of absence from her division to work as an associate administrator in Surgery to better grasp their challenges and concerns, particularly in the research arena. She implemented faculty surveys, participated in recruitment, and assisted in developing a sustainable model for research investigator financial reporting. Zang went to learn, but she left the Department of Surgery better than she found it. Her career at Wisconsin, and in managing a large multi-specialty private practice in Minneapolis before that, has been characterized by a commitment to delivering pragmatic solutions by involving all relevant stakeholders. I am confident that her broad and diverse experience across all of our missions, her leadership experience, and her inclusive approach will benefit our department immensely. We are fortunate to have her as part of our team. Please join me in welcoming Denise to Internal Medicine at Iowa.