Q+A: Maurizio Trevisan

By Charlotte Hsu

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

Behold, the $415,000 man.

He is Maurizio Trevisan, the public higher education system's highest-paid executive in the chancellor's office.

As the new executive vice chancellor overseeing health sciences programs in the Nevada System of Higher Education, Trevisan will lead efforts to coordinate and expand health-related education, research and clinical care at state colleges and universities.

He'll also be responsible for helping raise money for the fledgling health sciences system, which must find $38.7 million to accompany the nearly $90 million the state Legislature has provided for renovation and new construction.

Trevisan, who started Oct. 1, is still learning about health programs across Nevada. The state faces a shortage of health care professionals as its population continues to grow.

Trevisan comes to Las Vegas from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he spent 22 years. An internationally recognized epidemiologist, he was founding dean of that university's School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Below, he shares his plans.

As executive vice chancellor of health sciences, what will your priorities be?

My priorities are first of all to learn and understand well the landscape.

Another thing I'd like to achieve is to have the institutions collaborate so that for educational purposes, we can look at ourselves as a single entity. There are certain clear things that I would like to achieve. I would like to achieve integration across disciplines - medicine, nursing, allied health, dental schools.

In the educational arena, my hope is that if we have students, no matter where they are geographically in Nevada, they can take courses in any of the institutions. And this can be done somewhat today, but it's a very bureaucratic process.

What do you do day to day?

In this phase of my life I have lots of meetings. I meet a lot of people. I spent three days in Reno last week talking to the faculty. This is my discovery phase, so I'm trying to understand what the issues are, what the challenges are, what are the dreams and aspirations of the faculty.

The chancellor said part of your job will be to help raise money for the new health sciences system. How do you raise funds for a system in its infancy?

There are two ways. One is, as we develop the vision and the details, to be able to communicate our dreams and visions. And I think communication is very important. And the other thing is to focus on specific projects that are of interest to potential benefactors and try to show them how the system approach instead of the institutional approach is actually a benefit.

Why is creating a health sciences system better than simply allowing each institution to operate independently?

There is strength in numbers. So a unified system will allow us to first of all participate in bigger projects with statewide implications. And the second thing is, it is going to be much more cost-effective to work with a vision systemwide.

What will make it more efficient?

A lack of duplication of efforts.

What makes coordinating a health sciences program statewide a challenge?

People tend to focus a lot on the department they work in, the school they work in, the field they work in. What I'm trying to do is have people look at the big picture, try to think more about the system they work in, the state they work in.

What can you do to help people understand the importance of coordination?

Academicians are people who really care about the well-being of the community, and I think they'll be able to see that there are benefits for everybody.

What is the university systems role when it comes to health care in Nevada?

The people we educate are the ones that provide the services. And reaching academic excellence from the research point of view raises the bar for both the educational mission and the service mission. And then I think we need to partner with the state health department, with the hospitals, with all the health care providers, with the foundations and institutions locally to be able to again improve the health care delivery system and to make sure that the people get the best care possible at the lowest possible price.

You are the highest-paid executive in the chancellors office. Especially at a time when the university system is facing budget cuts, what do you think justifies that salary?

My personal belief is that what justified my salary is the current salaries that are paid nationwide in positions that are similar to mine.

It's the market.