Oden Named Chair of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Board of Trustees

LEBANON, N.H., Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Prof. Robert A. Oden, Jr. PhD, former president of Carleton College and Kenyon College, has been named Chair of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Board of Trustees. Oden, a member of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock board since January 2011, succeeded Wayne Granquist as chair on December 31, 2012.

"This is an extraordinary time in health care," noted Oden in a message to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock community. "Leading health care organizations have today the opportunity not just to maintain, but also to improve health care quality, while also being ever mindful of health care costs. Both of these are imperatives.

"Financially, operationally, and strategically, Dartmouth-Hitchcock has made great strides, strides requiring uncommon dedication and commitment. This was the work not of any one person or team, but the combined effort of the entire organization.  It is a privilege to work with everyone in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system, and I look forward to a future in which Dartmouth-Hitchcock will continue to fulfill its promise and to provide a model for the nation."

Oden, a resident of Hanover and former Professor of Religion at Dartmouth, retired in 2010 after eight years as President of Carleton College, a highly respected liberal arts college in Northfield, MN. Prior to that, he served for seven years as President of Kenyon College in Gambier, OH, and, from 1989-95, as head of school of the Hotchkiss preparatory school in Lakeville, CT.

Under his leadership, Carleton's faculty completed its first systematic curriculum review in 50 years, shaping the college as a leader in accenting creativity and inventiveness throughout the curriculum.  While student enrollment was held stable, Carleton increased its faculty ranks by adding 15 tenure-track faculty positions during Oden's presidency. He also headed a successful $300 million capital campaign for Carleton, and during his time there, increased the endowment from about $400 million to more than $700 million.

Oden has undergraduate degrees from both Harvard College and Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages from Harvard. From 1975-89, he was a Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, where he received Dartmouth's first Distinguished Teaching Award. In addition to his leadership of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Boards, he is a Trustee of the American University in Cairo and the American Schools of Oriental Research. He has served as Director of a major mutual fund since 1997.

"Rob is the quintessential 'scholar and gentleman,' who embodies the Dartmouth-Hitchcock values of respect, integrity, commitment, trust, transparency, teamwork, stewardship, and community," said Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Dr. James N. Weinstein. 

"He is a leader and mentor, and has enhanced every community in which he's lived and worked. I look forward to the assistance of his knowledge, experience, and insights as all of us throughout Dartmouth-Hitchcock work to create a sustainable health system."

ABOUT DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK: Dartmouth-Hitchcock is a national leader in patient-centered health care and creating a sustainable health system. Serving patients around northern New England since 1893, the system includes New Hampshire's only Level 1 trauma center and its only air ambulance service, as well as the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the state's only Children's Hospital Association-approved, comprehensive, full-service children's hospital. As an academic medical center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock provides access to nearly 1,000 primary care doctors and specialists in almost every area of medicine, as well as world-class research at the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

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SOURCE Dartmouth-Hitchcock