NORMAN – Dr. Jason Sanders, who has served in leadership positions at the OU Health Sciences Center since 2013, has been named Senior Vice President and Provost for the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center campus. Sanders is an OU alumnus and Rhodes Scholar who has an M.D. and M.B.A. with honors from Harvard University.
OU President David L. Boren made the announcement today at the December meeting of the OU Board of Regents.
“Dr. Jason Sanders has demonstrated that he has exceptional leadership abilities,” Boren said. “He works hard to create a spirit of community where people respect and care about each other. His unique educational background, which includes emphasis in both health care and business approaches, makes him one of the most qualified people in America to lead our Health Sciences Center as Provost,” Boren said.
Sanders fills the position previously held by Dr. Dewayne Andrews, who resigned his post as Provost in June to return full time to his leadership post as Executive Dean in the College of Medicine.
Sanders has served as interim Senior Vice President and Provost since June, and previously had served as Vice Provost for Planning and Administrative Affairs at the OU Health Sciences Center since 2013. In both capacities, he played a critical role in maintaining excellence in the OU Health Sciences Center’s academic and research programs and advancing OU’s mission in health care.
Sanders, who teaches courses including Clinical Medicine, Interprofessional Education and the Business of Medicine, works with medical students and residents at OU Medical Center. He also teaches Literature and Medicine in the Honors College on the OU Norman campus. He practices General Internal Medicine, seeing patients at OU Physicians. He also serves on the Governing Committee for OU Medical System, the University Hospitals Authority and Trust Board, and the Stephenson Cancer Center Leadership Council.
Sanders graduated with honors from the University of Oklahoma with a B.S. in Biochemistry in 2000. As a Rhodes Scholar, he attended the prestigious Trinity College, Oxford University, and received a Master’s of Art in English Language and Literature in 2003. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School with honors in 2008, and was Harvard University’s first combined M.D./M.B.A. program graduate. His M.B.A. field studies and research were on health care delivery innovation, primary care models, pediatric medical device development, medical education redesign, and working with a non-profit oncology therapeutics start-up. In 2009, Sanders completed an internship in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
To broaden his health care experience, Sanders joined McKinsey & Company, a leading international consulting firm, as a consultant in the Boston office in 2009. He served clients across the health care industry, advising community and academic hospitals on growth strategies, integrated delivery networks, clinical quality, operations, and physician alignment; pharmaceutical companies on research and development opportunities and drug safety; and national and local health insurers on health care reform and new business building strategies.
In 2011, Sanders returned to the practice of medicine and was selected for a residency in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, caring for patients in the inpatient, intensive care unit, and emergency room settings, and providing outpatient primary care at Internal Medicine Associates. He also worked with Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare leadership on care redesign and population health initiatives.
Sanders has continued to contribute to his OU alma mater by serving as the National Fellowship Advisor to the OU Honors College since 2000, on the Honors College Board of Visitors since 2010, and most recently on the Price College of Business Professional M.B.A. Advisory Board.
