Spectrum News 1 sat down with Dr. David McManus, as he prepares to become the next Chancellor of UMass Chan Medical School. "It's a tremendous privilege to get this opportunity. I'm really excited about it." The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees unanimously approved UMass President Mary Meehan's nomination of Dr. McManus in April. McManus will be the first alumnus to lead UMass Chan. McManus said it's important that UMass Chan will be lead by one of its own, "It is important to a number of our alumni because it's a signifier that UMass really can produce people who can compete for jobs like Chancellor of a medical school. It means that we're producing world-class scientists and researchers and educators and clinicians. And so I think it's important to me to do a good job because I kind of carry the expectations of all the graduates of the medical school kind of with me. I got to do them proud, you know."

Dr. McManus will replace the retiring Dr. Michael Collins who announced that he would be stepping down in June of 2025. As with many research universities across the country, Dr. McManus said funding sources will be a top priority, "Some of the major challenges that are out there for all medical schools include, especially those that are research powerhouses like UMass, are changes to the federal support of NIH and NSF grants. There's been a reduction in the number of R01s, typical grant that's issued to a scientist and that's impacted our faculty and will be a challenge despite bipartisan support in Congress recently for actually adding funding to the NIH because of the benefit to American people from that investment. Part of it for me will be to work with the faculty to concentrate on amplifying their work, maybe diversifying funding by working with foundations and philanthropy advancement, also working with companies and industry to try to, because we have a great life sciences ecosystem here, to try to identify different ways of supporting the great science here."

Dr. McManus arrived on the Worcester campus as a medical student in 1998. He has been and still is amazed at the growth of UMass Chan, "I came here as a medical student in 1998 and since that time I think we've had two Nobel laureates be awarded to faculty here and countless other national academy award winners, just illustrating the significance of the science happening on this campus. And so just to see that, to see the growth in also the health system and just the number of patients and the types of treatments that are available to patients here, and also for the students to be able to be part of that and to learn new skills, new technologies, it's been incredible."

Dr. McManus' specialty in medicine is cardiology. He tells Spectrum News that he would still like to practice medicine while serving as Chancellor, "I still hope to maintain a practice. And if my patients are watching this, they'll probably be emailing me later. But I'm having conversations with many of my patients about the fact that I'll likely be sharing my practice with another doc and having fewer clinics and basically having to transition my job. But being a physician is a big part of my identity. It's a big part of what also connects the medical school to the health care system and I think it'd be valuable for me to maintain that practice if it's something that can be worked out."