Elizabeth (Bess) Wildman has been named as the new Vice Dean of Academic Administration and Finance for the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division. Her first day at UChicago will be November 27, 2023.
The Vice Dean is the chief administrative officer of the BSD, responsible for all financial functions supporting academic units and ensuring a sound administrative infrastructure to effectively support its academic research and educational mission. Reporting directly to Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, Wildman will serve as a senior advisor and partner in the direction of research and administrative matters for the BSD and Pritzker School of Medicine.
As a member of the senior leadership team, Wildman will be responsible for strategic financial and administrative planning, budget development and implementation, and policy formulation and organizational development. She will also implement processes and administrative systems to foster growth, efficiency, recruitment, and retention of faculty and building the financial strength of the BSD. She will have direct oversight of financial operations and budgets as well as facilities planning and management, human resources, information services, and faculty compensation.
Wildman joins UChicago following a 25-year career in a variety of executive roles with proven success delivering administrative, operations, and financial results at leading schools of medicine, practice plans, and health systems. She joins UChicago from the University of California San Francisco, where she most recently served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the physicians’ organizations and cancer service line since 2019.
Prior to her time at UCSF, she served as a founding member of the executive search division at the Medicus Firm, a physician search firm based in Nashville, and held a progressive series of finance, administrative, and operational leadership roles at Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
