Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences, will step down from his post at the end of the academic year, President Christina Paxson announced in a community-wide email Monday afternoon. Wing plans to return to as a faculty member after taking a sabbatical.
Wing brought "admirable leadership and distinguished service to Brown" during his tenure, Paxson wrote, citing his guidance during the Alpert Medical School's move to the Jewelry District and work in building relationships with the school's affiliated teaching hospitals.
"Ed has been a leader in the University's remarkable period of progress," she wrote.
"It was his decision that the timing was right," said Provost Mark Schlissel P'15. "It was a very natural thing."
Wing, 67, told The Herald that the decision to step down was a "personal" one.
"It's been a very good run here," he said. "But it's also a very busy, stressful job."
Wing plans to re-engage with international medicine, "see more patients" and work on writing a textbook when he rejoins the faculty after his sabbatical, he said.
"I'll go back, really, to my roots in a way," he added.
Wing will have served as dean for five years when he steps down at the end of June, capping an administrative career that began with his appointment as the chair of the Department of Medicine in 1998.
Wing oversaw a number of developments after being appointed dean of medicine and biological sciences in 2008. He helped to raise funding for research in the biological sciences and increase undergraduate enrollment in these programs. He also encouraged increased enrollment in the Med School, culminating in the creation of a separate building for medical education on Richmond Street in the Jewelry District. Wing also aided the proposal to develop an independent School of Public Health, a motion on which faculty members will vote in a faculty meeting tonight.
Colleagues praised Wing as a communicative and involved leader.
President and CEO of Care New England Dennis Keefe expressed disappointment that Wing was stepping down as dean. "Our relationship with Brown, and I think my personal relationship with Dean Wing, had just reached the point where we were really seeing some real productive things happening," Keefe said, describing Wing as "somebody who does have a passion for academics in medicine, someone who really wants to be actively engaged."
Keefe also praised Wing's involvement in revising affiliation agreements between the University and Care New England, a health care system that oversees several Rhode Island teaching hospitals with which the University is affiliated.
"We worked at it, and we discussed all aspects, and I found it to be a great process," he said.
"Edward Wing has been a great academic partner," wrote Timothy Babineau, president and CEO of Lifespan, another health system affiliated with the Med School, in a statement to The Herald.
Babineau cited a shared "passion for advancing the national profile of our academic and research missions."
The process of convening a search committee for Wing's successor will "begin quite soon," Schlissel said. "I would hope we have a successor identified by the springtime."
Schlissel said he would prefer an open search, "considering both internal candidates, but also looking to see if there's an opportunity to bring in" people from outside the University.
Wing's resignation also comes in the middle of plans to both expand the Med School's incoming classes and develop a School of Public Health, but Schlissel said Wing's resignation would not interfere significantly with either initiative.
"Those plans are multi-year plans and are well underway," he said. "They're something a new dean would inherit, not have to pay particular attention to."
A separate dean would be appointed to oversee the proposed School of Public Health, though Schlissel said the two would often collaborate.
Wing said he was open to providing feedback about his successor's selection if he were invited to do so.
"That'll be up to the search committee," he said. "I certainly would be available for advice, absolutely."
Correction appended: A previous version of this article stated the name of President and CEO of Care New England Dennis Keefe. The headline also stated that Wing would resign as dean in May. In fact, he will step down June 30. The Herald regrets the error.
