MICHAEL F. COLLINS, MD

Senior Vice President for the Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts

 Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine

Michael F. Collins, MD, a nationally respected education and health care policy advocate and leader of not for profit health care was appointed Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School by the Board of Trustees of the University of Massachusetts on September 26, 2008. From June 2007 to September 2008, Dr. Collins served as the medical school’s interim chancellor.

Also in June 2007, Dr. Collins was appointed Senior Vice President for Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Collins currently directs the University of Massachusetts system-wide health sciences efforts, charged with leading strategic initiatives to further the university's efforts in the Commonwealth's critical life sciences industry.

As Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Dr. Collins, a Clinical Professor of Medicine, provides critical direction and leadership to the campus' continuing efforts to distinguish itself as a premier academic health sciences center of national distinction. Dr. Collins directs the campus' institutional advancement, fundraising and external outreach efforts, focusing on expanding and enhancing relationships with the University Board; the UMass Memorial Health System, of which he is also a member of the Board of Trustees; the community; the legislature; and, the philanthropic community. In addition, he provides administrative oversight and leadership for UMass Medical School enterprise operations, including Commonwealth Medicine and the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories, which generate over $1.1 billion in revenue and $200 million in annual research awards.

Dr. Collins was appointed Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2005. In this role, he was charged with overseeing an institution renowned for its access to excellence and its diversity. The most diverse university in New England, the campus boasts a student population of more than 14,000, speaking over 90 languages. Chancellor Collins managed a university budget of $225 million and led an academic community of more than 800 full and part-time faculty. In the two years Chancellor Collins led UMass Boston, he initiated campus efforts to complete a strategic and master planning effort to increase enrollment, research support and philanthropic giving to garner local and national recognition for the UMass Boston programs; and, began much needed physical improvements to the campus.

Prior to joining UMass Boston, Dr. Collins served as president and chief executive officer of Caritas Christi Health Care System from 1994 to 2004. Under his leadership, Caritas Christi became the second-largest health care system in New England, generating more than $1.1 billion in annual revenues from six acute care hospitals, physician group practices, several extended care facilities and other health care entities, all located in eastern Massachusetts. From 1994 to 2001, Dr. Collins also served as president of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, a university academic medical center affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine.

A board certified physician in internal medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Collins has held a number of faculty and academic leadership positions over the course of his career, first at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, where his posts included Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Assistant Dean for Patient Care Resources, and at Tufts University, where he served as Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean of Government and Medical Affairs in the School of Medicine and as a senior fellow, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. In that capacity, Dr. Collins conducted research on active citizenship opportunities for medical students, faculty and alumni of the School of Medicine, reviewed active citizenship and leadership qualities of medical school applicants, discussed curricular offerings and innovation, and charted a course for enhanced efforts in active citizenship and leadership.

Dr. Collins is published in the areas of health care management, risk management and medical education and has extensive experience in health care system design and health care system policy. He is an accomplished teacher in the classroom and on the clinical wards. He is a dynamic lecturer and brings the “real world’ to the classroom, particularly in the areas of health sciences education, mentoring, the organization, financing and governance of health care systems and the challenges faced by physicians and health care executives.

Dr. Collins is actively engaged in service to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has amassed vast experience in governance of not for profit and educational entities. Currently, he serves a member on the boards of the New England Healthcare Institute, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, the Colleges of Worcester Consortium and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative. Previously, Dr. Collins has served on numerous boards, including those of Jobs for Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Hospital Association, and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. On the national level, he has served as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Health Association of the United States; as a member of the Administrative Board, Council of Teaching Hospitals of the Association of American Medical Colleges; and, as a Delegate for the American Medical Association, among others.

Michael F. Collins is a 1977 cum laude graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, where he  served as trustee from 1996-2002 and as Chair of the Board  from 2002-2008. He is a 1981 graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine. He and his wife, Maryellen, have two children, Michael F. Collins, Jr. and Elizabeth M. Collins.

The University of Massachusetts Worcester was created in l962 by an act of the Massachusetts legislature to enable state residents to study medicine at an affordable cost, and to increase the number of primary care physicians practicing in underserved areas of the state.  The School of Medicine accepted its first class of 16 students in 1970 and now accepts 114 students per class. Today, the 67-acre campus is comprised of the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (opened in 1979), and the Graduate School of Nursing (opened in 1986). The Medical School consistently ranks among the top medical schools in the country for primary care nationwide. One of the fastest growing academic health centers in the country, UMMS attracts more than $200 million in research awards annually and is on the leading edge of medical research into human disease and treatment. The medical school’s 6,200 employees generate over $1.1 billion in revenue and make major contributions to communities throughout the Commonwealth.

October 2008