KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A prominent leader of the University of Kansas Medical Center and the School of Medicine will retire in June, more than a year earlier expected.
Barbara Atkinson will step down as executive vice chancellor of the medical center and as executive dean of the School of Medicine on June 30.
In November, Atkinson said she planned to stay on as dean of the medical school until a new dean was chosen, and as executive vice chancellor until December 2013.
Kansas Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said Monday that she has named Steven Stites, chairman of internal medicine, acting executive vice chancellor and executive dean, effective immediately.
She had said earlier that she wants to separate the two jobs Atkinson held. A search for a new medical school dean has already begun.
