Patrice Delafontaine stepped down as dean of the School of Medicine on Monday after only 10 months on the job. He will continue to teach and conduct research in the school’s cardiovascular division.
Ellen de Graffenreid, the University’s Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, said she cannot say why Delafontaine has left his position, but says there will be “no change in strategic direction whatsoever,” under the interim dean.
As long as Delafontaine continues to work with the university, he will continue to receive his $600,000 salary until at least December 2016, according to his resignation agreement. The Columbia Tribune reported that his salary is similar to that of other cardiology faculty at MU.
Delafontaine also received a hiring incentive of $200,000 and up to $60,000 to cover the cost of moving to Columbia, according to his offer letter. The letter does not address how or when his contract would be renegotiated, but specifies that if he is tenured he “would remain a professor in the school, and receive a salary equal to the 75th percentile of current full professors who are cardiologists in the department.”
Before joining MU, Delafontaine served as the director of cardiology at the Tulane University Hospital and Clinic. He has also been the director of the Heart and Vascular Institute and the chairman of the NIH Vascular Cellular and Molecular Biology Study Section, among other positions.
James Stannard, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic surgery, will serve as the interim dean.
