The second candidate named this month for the top position at the Kansas University Medical Center is the dean of the School of Medicine at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Steve Nelson, who has been on the faculty at LSU since 1984, will be one of three finalists for the executive vice chancellor job at the medical center. He will take part in a public town-hall meeting from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday in the G013 School of Nursing Auditorium on the KUMC campus.

Nelson has been dean of the LSU medical school in New Orleans since 2007, and he has been the president of the LSU Healthcare Network since 2009.

He earned a medical degree from McGill University in Montreal in 1978. Like the first candidate named for the KUMC job, Norman Beauchamp, he has a connection to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; he completed his residency and two fellowships at the university’s hospital, as well as a fellowship at its School of Hygiene and Public Health. His specialty has been pulmonary medicine, though he also leads a Comprehensive Alcohol Research Center at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

KU released his name and career information in advance of his visit on a webpage set up to track the executive vice chancellor search.

Beauchamp, the first of three finalists for the job, visited the KUMC campus last week. The third candidate, whose name has not yet been revealed, is scheduled to appear at a town-hall meeting Tuesday.