Miami Hires Julio Frenk As The Next President

The University of Miami announced earlier today that Julio Frenk would take over as president when Donna Shalala steps down in about 3 months. Frenk was the dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and is known worldwide for his works in healthcare. Frenk has the knowledge and resources to continue to grow Miami’s already impressive medical and research sectors. Over the last 48 hours, speculation of Frenk being selected was growing and the decision was formally announced this morning. A press conference was held at noon to introduce Julio Frenk.

While the hiring of Frenk seems like a touchdown for the academics at UM, many are intrigued about his feelings towards athletics. Frenk was asked many athletics related questions and took the time to acknowledge them. He made it clear that he is well aware of Miami’s history of athletic excellence and said he will be meeting with the coaches today. It will take some time to see how Frenk handles both the athletic and academic sides of his position and nobody really knows what path he will take. He did discuss what he will be doing to start:

We all know Julio Frenk will have a lot to listen to. Frenk will officially take over the presidency on August 1st, the same day that Miami’s massive apparel deal with Adidas kicks in.

From all of us here at Caneswarning: Welcome to The U, Julio Frenk!

Below is a biography of Julio Frenk via Harvard.edu:

"Since January 2009, Dr. Julio Frenk has been Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health—now the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—and T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.Dr. Frenk served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. He pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system, with an emphasis on redressing social inequality. He is perhaps best known for his work in introducing a program of comprehensive national health insurance, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for tens of millions of previously uninsured Mexicans.Dr. Frenk was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of health education and research in the developing world. In 1998, Dr. Frenk joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy, WHO’s first-ever unit explicitly charged with developing a scientific foundation for health policy to achieve better outcomes.Most recently, he served as a senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and as president of the Carso Health Institute in Mexico City. He is the founding chair of the board of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. He also co-chaired the Commission on the Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century, which published its influential report in the leading journal The Lancet in 2010, triggering a large number of follow-up initiatives throughout the world.Dr. Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master of public health and a joint doctorate in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from several institutions of higher learning.He is a member of the U.S. Institute of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Medicine of Mexico.In addition to his scholarly works, which include more than 140 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, he has written two best-selling novels for youngsters explaining the functions of the human body.In September of 2008, Dr. Frenk received the Clinton Global Citizen Award for changing “the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health.”"