Dr. Calhoun appointed president of unified Tyler institution

TYLER — UT Tyler and UT Health Science Center at Tyler are merging to better serve East Texas. The UT Board of Regents formalized leadership on Monday, unanimously naming Kirk A. Calhoun, M.D. president. Dr. Calhoun told KTBB, “I’m excited for our students. This is going to have a really great affect on our healthcare workforce. When you combine what we are doing here in graduate bio-medical sciences. in public health. Now, with the new medical school and teamming that with a nursing school and a pharmacy school and a school of health professionals…Now, with-in UT Tyler, we have, certainly, one of the larger health education programs in the state.”

Dr. Calhoun continued, “This will allow us to have a seem-less integration for our students across the two campuses. Our students and faculty will be able to move back and forth in a pretty much uninhibited fashion. This will allow us to serve our tax payers better. It will increase the status of UT Tyler and its prominence in academics, and that’s a good thing.” Dr. Calhoun officially takes over that role on January 4, 2021. The merged university will be called UT Tyler. Regent Board Chairman Kevin Eltife, the former Mayor of Tyler, said that the merge would not have been possible without the cooperation of Calhoun and Dr. Michael Tidwell, the current president of UT Tyler.