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Oregon Health & Science University, operating with an interim president for seven months, had planned to introduce two candidates for the job to the public on video calls, but one of them dropped out late yesterday, OHSU said.
That left one contender, Shereef Elnahal, a Harvard University-educated doctor who has run a hospital in Newark, N.J., and recently served as chief executive of the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system in the Biden administration.
OHSU interim president Steve Stadum led a 7:30 am call today, asking Elnahal questions sent in ahead of time by employees. Until late yesterday, the other candidate was scheduled for a call at 3:30 pm.
Elnahal said his top priority at OHSU would be to preserve funding for research that is under threat from the Trump administration. A bill that just passed in the U.S. House of Representatives would cut funding for the National Institutes of Health, a major funder of OHSU, by 40%, Elnahal said.
“I would consider my first priority in this role to do as much as possible to prevent the worst of those cuts,” Elnahal said. “I would reach out and leverage the relationships I have been able to build in the the Senate, where the bill is right now, to make sure OHSU’s perspective is heard.”
The son of Egyptian doctors who moved to the U.S., Elnahal grew up in New Jersey and earned a bachelor of arts in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, then got a dual M.D. and master’s of business administration from Harvard.
Since leaving Veterans Affairs in January, Elnahal has been a health adviser at Thrive Capital, according to his LinkedIn profile. Thrive is a New York-based venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, younger brother of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Thrive got its start with money from Princeton University and libertarian entrepreneur Peter Thiel, among others.
In work that may resonate in Oregon, where regulated use of psilocybin mushrooms is legal, Elnahal pushed the Veterans Administration to do more research on psychedelics for treating post traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Another West Coast activity: In his introduction, Stadum mentioned that Elnahal had spent time surfing with injured veterans at a sports clinic in San Diego.
“There are some good beaches on the Oregon Coast,” Stadum said.
This reporting is supported by the Heatherington Foundation for Innovation and Education in Health Care.