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One afternoon in early December, Dr. Nathan Selden was sketching out a plan.
For weeks, the Oregon Health & Science University dean of medicine had presented Dr. Jennifer DeVoe, the leader of a major department, with an ultimatum: If she wanted to keep her job, she needed to forgo a prestigious award that involved travel—and stay on campus instead.
But now, Selden had changed his mind: Whether DeVoe took the award or not, he would oust her as chair of the Department of Family Medicine.
Selden described his intention to OHSU human resources chief Angela Sklenka and his chief of staff Abby Tibbs, one of several emails WW obtained through a public records request. “Please provide feedback and consider how we would optimally and appropriately carry this out,” Selden wrote.
The email marked a key turning point in a saga that would result in DeVoe’s demotion, scores of health care figures at OHSU and beyond rallying to her cause, and—most recently—a Title IX complaint and a letter from DeVoe accusing Selden, one of OHSU’s most powerful officials, of sex discrimination and retaliation. The Lund Report broke the news of the letter on Tuesday.
The emails and the letter collectively trace the deteriorating relationship between two high-powered colleagues—one a family medicine practitioner and the other a pediatric neurosurgeon—who represent very different factions within the medical establishment.
They also show the potential pitfalls when a new leader seeks to swiftly impose directives at sprawling institutions like OHSU, where fiefdoms guard their independence and standing. And, from the perspective of DeVoe and some of her colleagues, it demonstrates the “toxic culture” at the medical center, a major Portland employer that has proven continually resistant to reform.
Still, in December, as Selden pondered his plan for DeVoe, the matter, while tense, had not yet grown openly ugly. Selden got the blessing of Sklenka, the HR chief, for his plan to remove the chair from her position.
“This plan seems completely reasonable,” Sklenka replied, before asking about Selden’s preferences for HR support. “We are here for you! I could join you however you may need me as a release valve.”
DeVoe’s subsequent demotion, which WW first reported in January, set off a wave of protests from colleagues in her department. But it was part of a much longer story.
DeVoe arrived at OHSU in 2001, Selden in 2000. Over the years, DeVoe’s letter says, she found him to be at times strangely preoccupied with pedigree and awards—such as the fact of her old Rhodes scholarship, of their mutual Harvard Medical School degrees—but that on balance he seemed generally friendly and engaging.
Then, in February 2024, Selden became interim dean, and according to DeVoe’s letter, “everything changed.”
The Lund Report was the first to detail DeVoe’s letter—a tort claim notice, which is a prelude to a potential lawsuit. Dated March 17 and drafted by her attorney, Matthew C. Ellis, the letter documents DeVoe’s perspective on her demotion and its aftermath, detailing various encounters and exchanges in which, it alleges, Selden treated DeVoe in a way that he would not have treated a male colleague.
“If Dr. Jennifer DeVoe was Dr. James DeVoe, none of this would have happened,” the letter says. “On one hand, Dr. DeVoe does not want to bring claims against OHSU. She does not want her department or the institution to be dragged through the mud. It is the last thing OHSU needs. On the other hand, it is important for her to stand up for herself, and other doctors like her, and to help fix a toxic culture at OHSU, since it doesn’t seem equipped or interested in fixing it itself.”
Selden did not respond to an email seeking his perspective for this story. OHSU, in a statement, said it is “committed to providing a work and learning environment that is respectful and safe for all. We do not tolerate harassment, discrimination or retaliation of any kind. OHSU is confident we have followed our HR processes and procedures.”
The letter centers its narrative on a few key meetings. The first occurred April 22, 2024.
Selden had just taken the dean’s job, and according to the letter, DeVoe anticipated a one-on-one meet-and-greet. Instead, the letter said that Selden—who had invited another official, Dr. Atif Zaman—explained a major change in operations: Family Medicine patients would need to clear out of OHSU Hospital and move to Adventist Hospital to make space for beds reserved for more complex health care.
According to the letter, when DeVoe asked if the decision was final, Selden “explained that ‘I made the decision, and I wanted you to hear it from me first,’ and ‘it is final.’”
The letter emphasizes not just Selden’s message but his manner. DeVoe, according to her attorney’s letter, “left the meeting with the clear impression that Dean Selden wanted to show off for Dr. Zaman by being ‘strong’ and ‘gruff’ and wanted to use a directive, authoritative tone; a stark deviation from their past dealings.”
The letter alleges Selden wanted people to know he could be a “strong male leader and force others, especially women and departments like Family Medicine which were more associated with women’s issues and female practitioners, to bend to his will.”
If this was in fact his goal, however, achieving it was not so easy. The letter says Selden’s plan received significant pushback from the Family Medicine department. “It was not lost on them,” it says, “that sending Family Medicine patients ‘offsite’ communicated that the work they do and the patients they saw were less important to OHSU than other practices that were perceived to be more financially profitable.”
A few days later, the letter says, Selden asked DeVoe to join him at a Starbucks. According to the letter, he denied having said the department would be moved off Marquam Hill—directly contradicting prior comments and documentation to the contrary. The letter claims Selden told DeVoe that she’d misheard him, and that it “pains him” how “emotional you get.”
The letter adds that “The meeting lasted three hours and was very uncomfortable for Dr. DeVoe.”
In the telling of DeVoe and her attorney, this and other unpleasant encounters were a prelude to a more recent dispute. It concerned a Fulbright U.S. Global Scholar Award. According to DeVoe, the prior OHSU dean of medicine, Dr. David Jacoby, had recommended DeVoe apply. But when she won it, she says, Jacoby’s successor, Selden, saw it in a different light.
“Dr. DeVoe told Dean Selden about the Fulbright award at an informal chair gathering at his home” in early May 2025, DeVoe’s attorney writes in the letter. “Dean Selden was not thrilled.”
According to the letter, Selden told Dr. DeVoe that sabbaticals were not in the cards at OHSU, though maybe she could explore doing the portion of the Fulbright that required work outside of the country as unpaid leave or while on vacation.
The letter says that DeVoe, disinclined to quibble over money on this front, was open to this. But the conversation went on. On July 14, 2025, the letter recounts, Selden called an “urgent meeting” in which he said there was simply too much going on for a chair to go abroad.
The letter says DeVoe offered various compromises (that an acting chair fill in for her, or that she do Fulbright work while on vacation from OHSU), but Selden resisted. The letter recounts that Selden suggested the Fulbright work would be an improper use of DeVoe’s vacation time. According to the letter, Selden suggested that if DeVoe takes a vacation, she should “sit by a lake and throw rocks in the lake,” rather than do “rigorous” Fulbright academic work.
The dispute trickled onward into the fall, at which point, in one of the emails reviewed by WW, Selden expressed his position clearly.
In the Oct. 29 note, Selden wrote: “The Fulbright award time commitment is not compatible with being Chair of the Department of Family medicine, and if you would like to pursue the Fulbright you’d need to step down as chair.”
Selden added that he understood that DeVoe wanted to take the Fulbright and remain chair, but was “sorry that option was still not a possibility.” He added that, if she did decline the award and stay on as chair, he expected an ongoing discussion about how she could improve alignment with other OHSU priorities and work to “promote a culture of collaboration in the Department of Family Medicine.”
DeVoe wrote back Nov. 7 that she understood Selden as presenting her with two options: take the Fulbright and prematurely end her tenure as chair, or decline the Fulbright and continue as chair.
She was leaning toward the first option, she wrote, but only if they reached an “amicable agreement that would ensure continuity and stability for the department”—and for her career.
She listed various terms. On Nov. 17, Selden responded that he could not fulfill all of these conditions, and on Nov. 21, DeVoe sought more detailed information from Selden on various points.
“I have not made a decision,” DeVoe wrote. “I am still trying to understand my options.”
Selden distributed this email to other colleagues, including Zaman, Tibbs, and Bonnie Nagel, another top executive. Then, on Dec. 3, Selden sent the email announcing the plan he’d arrived at.
“Following advice and input, I today reached the following plan,” he wrote. DeVoe, he had determined, would be removed from her position whether she took the award or not. The only question was whether it happened sooner, or when the new fiscal year began in mid-2026.
Two minutes later, Sklenka, the HR chief, sent the response to Selden saying the plan seemed completely reasonable.
DeVoe’s tort claim letter recalls what happened next. On Dec. 8, it says, she met with Sklenka to tell her the dean was seeking to remove her as chair because she got the Fulbright award, and he was under the “false impression” the award would require significant travel. Two days later, the letter says, DeVoe reported to the university’s office of civil rights that she’d faced discrimination because of her gender.
On Dec. 17, the letter says, DeVoe entered a meeting with Sklenka and another staffer, Elaine King, who presented a letter from Selden. “In the letter, Dean Selden informed Dr. DeVoe that he changed his mind about Dr. DeVoe remaining as chair and informed her that no matter what she decides regarding the Fulbright, she would be removed as chair.”
DeVoe’s letter adds that she rejected the options and proposed mediation, but that Selden didn’t want to talk, instead going on to abruptly announce her demotion on Jan. 9 with little explanation to staff. DeVoe’s letter describes as “lies” some of the subsequent explanations Selden offered staff—such as that he and his team had engaged stakeholders over a period of months to implement the change.
The saga wasn’t over. The news spread fast and sparked an outcry from colleagues, concentrated in the OHSU Family Medicine department but also from other quarters, who signed a rapidly assembled joint letter that defended DeVoe as a widely respected authority and advocate for the cause of family medicine. According to DeVoe’s letter, the faculty senate filed an additional complaint Jan. 28, saying the removal betrayed trust, lacked transparency, and created a culture of fear.
DeVoe, who still works at OHSU, said she met Feb. 5 with OHSU president Dr. Shereef Elnahal to detail her concerns about Selden, a leader who was appointed by Elnahal’s predecessor, Dr. Danny Jacobs.
She also alleged that Selden has, since then, continued a campaign against her—actively interfering in her work and undermining her ability to do research despite the fact that she has an active grant and he is not her direct supervisor—in an effort to force her to resign or retire. On Feb. 17, she filed a Title IX complaint against Selden, though she says he continues to retaliate.
It’s “conduct that we expect will get worse and worse, unless someone steps in and stops it,” DeVoe’s letter says.
One early critique of Selden was that he didn’t seem to even have a succession plan. But he did go on to appoint an interim replacement for DeVoe, Dr. Jessie Flynn, a long-tenured OHSU figure whom DeVoe’s letter describes as a highly qualified, if a less-experienced and -credentialed physician.
“Dr. DeVoe has confidence Family Medicine will do well under Dr. Flynn, as it did under her leadership,” the letter says, “but remains skeptical it will thrive under Dean Selden.”
