Kansas City, Kan. ? For the first time since a new affiliation was signed between Kansas University Medical Center and KU Hospital, the joint advancement board of the two organizations met to plot its future and look back at where the two entities have been this year.

The 55-member advancement board was conceived about three years ago to promote strategic planning and partnerships in the community. Friday, the board announced it was expanding by perhaps as many as 20 members.

The board also announced that Drue Jennings, a former interim athletic director at KU and Kansas City businessman, would step down as board chairman and be replaced by Cheryl Jernigan.

“There are some enormous challenges facing us as a community, as medical systems and as this medical center and its campus,” Jennings said. “Now the hard work is about to begin and that’s why it’s time for me to sit down.”

Jernigan is well known in philanthropic circles and is a regional leader of Susan G. Komen For the Cure.

In addition to making leadership and membership changes at its semi-annual meeting, the board also sketched out its four main goals for the year:

¢ Modifying the group’s existing bylaws so it can work more efficiently and nimbly through its committees.

¢ Advocating for passage of the 1/8th-cent sales tax that would create a Johnson County Educational Research Triangle. The triangle would help fund expansion at the KU Edwards Campus, construction of a KSU Olathe campus and the establishment of a center for cancer clinical trials in Fairway.

¢ Raising $4 million to help fund renovations and new faculty at KUMC.

¢ Empowering and educating board members so they can speak up when policies at the state or federal level could have a damaging effect on the academic medical center.

KU Hospital CEO Bob Page and KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson addressed the group and enumerated various successes their organizations have had this year. Atkinson pointed to an increase in faculty and research, while Page touted improved patient satisfaction scores and a decrease in mortality rates.

Both also commented on how well all entities on the campus are working together.

“A year ago, I remember saying to all of you we have an opportunity, if we can align our goals, to create a model for academic medicine that other hospitals will want to come to K.C. and follow,” Page said. “Not only have we created that model, we’re working together better now than I’ve ever seen in the 11-and-a-half years I’ve been here.”

The Advancement Board of KUMC, KU Hospital and now also KU Physicians Inc. is composed of university and Kansas City civic leaders, as well as individuals from the KU Endowment Association. In the immediate future, the goal is to increase membership to include people from across Kansas.