U of M medical school dean leaving amid instability

Dr. Jakub Tolar is stepping down as dean at the University of Minnesota Medical School, a departure that U donors warned last year could further destabilize the university’s academic health program.

Tolar was named on Thursday, Jan. 15, as the next president, CEO and executive dean of the Baylor College of Medicine, a Houston-based center that boasts the most National Institutes of Health-funded research of any institution in Texas.

He has led the U’s Medical School since 2017. He previously ran a pioneering research institute that developed stem cell treatment for a severe and often terminal skin disease.

“Dean Tolar was presented with a compelling opportunity to serve in an elevated role as a CEO of another prestigious medical institution,” the U said in a statement. “We congratulate him and remain focused on sustaining and strengthening the University’s world-class health and health care commitment to all of Minnesota.”

Tolar was not available for an interview.

Prominent U donors raised alarms in December as word spread that Tolar was considering jobs elsewhere. They said his departure would worsen faculty instability at the state’s largest medical school and related programs for research and patient care.

The U responded at the time that philanthropic giving remained strong and predicted the university would reach an agreement to secure long-term funding of its academic health care program.

Tolar’s hiring by a prestigious medical center like Baylor shows his skill and talent, said Lynne Redleaf, president of the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation. Her Minneapolis-based philanthropy raised concern in December after Tolar became one of four finalists for a top job at University of Arkansas.

“We do not know who the next leader will be, or whether the University of Minnesota Medical School will suffer a ‘brain drain’ as a result of losing Dr. Tolar’s leadership,” Redleaf said in an email Thursday.

Another large donor, Minnesota Masonic Charities, cautioned last month that the university already had seen the departure of several highly respected leaders. Losing Tolar, the group said, “would be an insurmountable setback for the University and would significantly deepen our concerns about leadership stability and talent retention.”

Late last year, Tolar distributed a memo to department chairs suggesting U President Rebecca Cunningham “prefers a Dean, or indeed any leader, of her own choosing.” Cunningham became university president in 2024.

Medical School sources tell the Minnesota Star Tribune that Tolar had been marginalized by Cunningham in ongoing negotiations for a new affiliation agreement with University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP) and Fairview Health Services.

The U rejected such comments as “speculation.”

“The president and her team need to come to a swift agreement with UMP and Fairview to calm the rough waters and avoid a complete meltdown of the Medical School’s clinical and practice infrastructure,” Yannopoulos said.

“It is time for reconciliation and acceptance of reality, rather than continued pursuit of quixotic visions.”