The College of Osteopathic Medicine has appointed two of its alumni to leadership positions for the college’s expansion into southeast Michigan.
Gary Willyerd and Kari Hortos were named interim associate deans for the two new sites. Willyerd will oversee MSU’s presence at Detroit Medical Center and Hortos will take the helm at the University Center at Macomb Community College.
Both are alumni of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, or MSUCOM, with Willyerd having graduated in 1978 and Hortos in 1982, and both currently teach for the college.
“I feel great pride,” said William Strampel, MSUCOM dean. “The college has grown up and our alumni are now coming back into key positions for their school.”
Pending accreditation by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, the expansion would add 100 students to MSUCOM — 50 at each of the new sites. Currently there are 200 students at the East Lansing campus, Strampel said.
The request for accreditation will come in December, after an approval for expansion by the MSU Board of Trustees in May. If everything goes as planned, Strampel said, the earliest MSU could be represented in Detroit and Macomb would be 2009.
Though Strampel said the university didn’t seek out alumni for the positions, it happened to work that way.
“It happened that Dr. Hortos was a Macomb resident and a perfect fit,” he said. “Gary (Willyerd) was also a Detroit resident and had a close relationship with those at the DMC. Both were willing to make career changes and move into dean positions, so it was great for us and I hope it will be great for them.”
Hortos was out of town and couldn’t be reached for comment, but Willyerd said that he was excited to expand MSUCOM’s reach into Detroit.
“As a graduate and faculty member of MSUCOM, I recognize the college’s strengths in training new physicians, especially its successes in training primary care physicians and physicians who will stay in our community to provide services,” Willyerd said.
The expansion is still a couple of years away, but Nick Brown, a first-year osteopathic medicine graduate student, said he personally wouldn’t have been interested in leaving East Lansing.
“I’m more of a northern Michigan region kind of guy, but I know people that would prefer that because it’s closer to them,” he said.
Regardless, Brown said the expansion was necessary for the sake of the college and the state.
“It’s something necessary for our school, to prevail in Michigan. We need to keep working to expand into that region and create more positions to supply Michigan in the future,” he said.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
