NORMAN – University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren today announced the appointment of Dr. James M. Herman as Dean of the School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, following an extensive national search. The school is expanding from a clinical two-year campus for third- and fourth-year students to a four-year campus that is a joint project between the University of Tulsa and OU. Dr. Herman, whose appointment is pending approval of the OU Board of Regents, will oversee the development of the TU-OU School of Community Medicine, which will begin classes with 25 first-year medical students in August.

“Dr. Herman is uniquely qualified to become dean of the School of Community Medicine in Tulsa as we move forward in partnership with the University of Tulsa to create a great four-year program in Tulsa,” Boren said. “He was the strong unanimous first choice of the search committee.”

Dr. Herman comes to OU from the Penn State College of Medicine and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where he has served since 1991 as the Hershey Company Professor and Chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. During his tenure as chairman, he successfully led that department’s development from a small department into a large department with a range of special clinical and academic programs. He also held the position of Associate Dean of Primary Care and Primary Care Research at Penn State. Dr. Herman also directed a special program in “Leadership” and dealing with change at the Penn State College of Medicine for several years and served as the director of the Center for Leadership at that institution.

Dr. Herman earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a Master of Science in Public Health degree from the University of Missouri. His residency training in Family Medicine was at the University of Rochester in New York state.

He has previously served as a Marion Bishop Fellow of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Foundation, a fellow of the American Council on Education and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Dr. Herman is a member of many professional organizations and has been appointed to service on many national organization committees. He was the project director on 15 Area Health Education Center grants and Principal Investigator on other grants and has published numerous papers on assessment of clinical practice support and needs of physicians in rural Pennsylvania health care.

He served as the director of the North American Primary Care Research Group from 1988-1995.

Other interests and areas of publication include stroke care, clinical epidemiology and patient preferences in medical practice.