Dear colleagues, students and friends,
Dr. Marschall Runge, an M.D. and Ph.D. who has served as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and CEO of Michigan Medicine since March 2015 and Dean of the Medical School since January 2016, will retire from these leadership roles following the conclusion of his contract on June 30, 2025. He will remain on the faculty as a professor.
Dr. Runge was the first individual in the history of the university to serve in all three leadership roles and during his tenure he elevated the health system and the medical school in profound and lasting ways. He has been a visionary leader who is forward thinking, strategic and committed to academic and clinical excellence. Philanthropic gifts more than doubled under his leadership and resulted in important contributions to education, discovery and clinical practice.
He helped guide the health system through a number of challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Michigan Medicine served as a statewide resource for the most critical patients.
His passion for research and innovation led to the establishment of multiple centers and initiatives, including the Stanley and Judith Frankel Institute for Heart and Brain Health, Center for Global Health Equity, Precision Health Initiative, and Frankel Innovation Initiative. He oversaw the revitalization of the North Campus Research Complex and the development and execution of a new research strategic plan.
In the past decade, Dr. Runge led a team responsible for the greatest clinical growth in recent history, building the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion, Brighton Center for Specialty Care, West Ann Arbor Health Center, and a new Ypsilanti Health Center opening this fall. In addition, plans are underway for a new ambulatory specialty center to be built in Troy. Growth has extended statewide as well, with two health systems joining Michigan Medicine during the past decade — University of Michigan Health-West in Grand Rapids and University of Michigan Health-Sparrow in the Lansing area.
Dr. Runge oversaw a remarkable period of innovation and growth at the U-M Medical School. One example is a tool that will teach learners how to evaluate clinical machine learning and artificial intelligence tools with a goal to transform how machine learning and AI are taught both at Michigan Medicine and throughout the nation. Medical school applications have increased substantially in the past decade, and many of the outstanding students we attract to our medical and graduate programs remain at Michigan Medicine. U-M Medical School has seen significant and continuous growth in National Institutes of Health research awards and now ranks 11th in NIH funding. Under Dr. Runge’s leadership, the investment in research has resulted in the greatest growth in medical school research and lab space in its history.
On behalf of the entire U-M community, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Runge for all his contributions to Michigan Medicine over the years and for those he will continue to make through the end of his tenure. Plans to engage with the university community and to identify future leadership will be announced in the coming weeks.
Please join me in thanking him for his distinguished career at the University of Michigan, and in wishing him the very best in his future endeavors. For those of you who wish to learn more about Dr. Runge’s career and legacy, I encourage you to read the story about him in today’s University Record.
Sincerely,
Santa J. Ono
President, University of Michigan
