UAMS Names Kenneday to Lead Campus Operations Division
| LITTLE ROCK – Mark Kenneday, who brings 25 years experience in facility management and operations, has been named vice chancellor for campus operations at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Kenneday, a certified health care facilities manager by the American Hospital Association, most recently served almost five years as director of building care and operations for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. At UAMS, he will direct the campus operations division that supervises and coordinates all campus facilities, engineering, construction, maintenance, housekeeping and occupational safety activities. The division, which includes almost 400 employees, also is responsible for telecommunications, campus mail and messenger services, campus security, the UAMS Bookstore, utility distribution and biomedical engineering support. He succeeds Leo Gehring, who is retiring after 10 years as UAMS vice chancellor for campus operations in a 40-year career of administration and health care facilities management. Earlier this year, Gehring was named a fellow of the American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), the highest professional designation from the organization. “With the UAMS campus experiencing a period of unprecedented growth, we are pleased to have Mark Kenneday’s experience and facilities expertise as we position ourselves to care for more patients, teach more students, conduct more research and expand our programs in the coming years,” said UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D. “We also are grateful to Leo Gehring for his distinguished service and dedication to UAMS over the years that has ensured the campus support systems we have needed to operate daily and accomplish our missions.” The UAMS campus will encompass nearly 5 million square feet of buildings on 84 acres with the opening of a Psychiatric Research Institute in December, a new hospital in 2009 and a major expansion to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute in 2010. Kenneday received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Houston. That also is where he received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering technology and construction management. He was elected this year to a two-year term on the ASHE board of directors. He also is a senior member of the organization. He is a past president of the Texas Association of Healthcare Facility Managers. UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,538 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,600 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. Visit www.uams.edu.