January 15, 2010                                                                       Contact: Matt Splett
                                                                                                      Media Coordinator
                                                                                                      splettm@health.missouri.edu 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    (573) 882-5663

COLUMBIA, Mo. — W. Kirt Nichols, M.D., M.H.A., chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery, vice chair of the Hugh E. Stephenson Jr., M.D. Department of Surgery and professor of surgery at the MU School of Medicine, has been elected chief of staff at University Hospital. Nichols began his two-year term Jan. 1.

Nichols joined University Hospital in 1973. He previously served as the hospital’s chief of staff from 1994 to 2005. As chief of staff, he will be responsible for all matters related to patient care and will act as a representative of the medical staff to the health system administration and the dean of the MU School of Medicine.

Nichols succeeds Gordon Christensen, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at University of Missouri Health Care and professor of medicine at the MU School of Medicine, who had served as chief of staff since 2008.