New NEOUCOM president to focus on health care jobs

ROOTSTOWN — The incoming president of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy said the institution really values its Youngstown relationship.

Dr. Jay Alan Gershen, D.D.S., Ph.D., who becomes NEOUCOM’s sixth president effective Jan. 15, said his role will be to reach out to the medical school’s community and education partners and strengthen those relationships.

NEOUCOM was launched in 1973 as an educational partnership involving Youngstown State University, Kent State University and the University of Akron to provide a facility for training physicians in Northeast Ohio. That partnership was expanded last year to include Cleveland State University.

Outgoing President and Dean of the College of Medicine Dr. Lois Margaret Nora, who has led NEOUCOM for seven years, has said numerous times that the Youngstown area remains important to the institution and it will retain strong links with the medical community there.

Dr. Gershen, whose appointment was announced Wednesday, said those types of links helped NEOUCOM develop into what it is today.

He sees the development of the health-care work force as the next area of concern for the institution, pointing out that NEOUCOM is a role model for programs in workforce development.

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