Douglas Allan Girod (born May 5, 1958) is an American educator, medical doctor, and the 18th chancellor of the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

. Prior to becoming chancellor, he was the

University of Kansas Medical Center The University of Kansas Medical Center, commonly referred to as KU Med or KUMC, is a medical campus for the University of Kansas. KU Med houses the university's schools of medicine, nursing, and health professions, with the primary health scienc ...

's executive vice chancellor, a position he had held since February 2013. Before being promoted to the executive vice chancellor at the

, Girod was the senior dean for the

School of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

while dually serving as a surgeon at the

University of Kansas Health System The University of Kansas Health System, commonly known as KU Med and formerly known as The University of Kansas Hospital, is a nonprofit, academic medical center located in Kansas City, Kansas, United States, with branch hospitals and education ...

where he began his career in 1994. He is also a veteran of the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

Biography

Education

Girod was born and raised in

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, w ...

. He graduated from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, then attended the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

, for his doctorate of medicine, and completed his residency and an

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Servic ...

research fellowship at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Career

Beginning in 1982, Girod began his 15-year career in the

where he worked at the

Naval Hospital Oakland Naval Hospital Oakland, also known as Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, was a United States Navy, U.S. naval hospital located in Oakland, California that opened during World War II (1942) and closed in 1996 as part of the 1993 Base Realignment and Closur ...

as a surgeon and the Director of

Otolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the surgical an ...

. In 1997, Girod was honorably discharged from the military, ending his career as a Lieutenant Commander. In 1994, Girod left California to become a surgeon at the KU Medical Center. During his time at the KU Medical Center, Girod was a professor, department chair, senior associate dean, interim executive dean, and his most recent post of executive vice chancellor.

University of Kansas chancellor

On May 25, 2017, the

Kansas Board of Regents The Kansas Board of Regents is a body consisting of nine members that governs six state universities in the U.S. state of Kansas. In addition to these six universities, it also supervises and coordinates nineteen community colleges, five techni ...

announced Girod as the 18th chancellor of the University of Kansas. During his time as chancellor, Girod has increased the university's enrollment, established a partnership between Kansas Athletics, the

and Lawrence Memorial Health to create Kansas Team Health, a model that provides better care for student athletes and moved all healthcare professionals under the Kansas Health System's payroll. A year into being chancellor, Girod fired athletic director Sheahon Zenger due to a lack of progress in the school's athletic performance. Almost a month later, Girod hired Jeff Long as the new

athletics director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

, tasking him with fixing the football program. Long fired David Beaty at the end of the 2018 football season, ending with a 6–42 record at Kansas. Long then hired

Les Miles Leslie Edwin Miles (born November 10, 1953) is a former American football coach. He most recently served as the head coach at Kansas. His head coaching career began with the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where he coached from 2001 to 2004. Following t ...

to improve the football program to a championship-caliber program, however, Miles was fired on March 9, 2021, after accusations from women while he was at

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

. The next day, Girod fired Long as the athletics director. In April 2021, Girod hired Travis Goff as the new athletics director, whose first task was to hire a new football coach. Almost a month later, Goff named

Lance Leipold Lance Leipold ( ; born May 6, 1964) is an American college football coach who is the head football coach at the University of Kansas, a position he has held since 2021. He was the head football coach at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater fr ...

as the next football coach. Leipold, in just his second season, led the Jayhawks to a 5–0 start for the first time since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and also coached the team to be bowl-eligible for the first time since 2008.

Personal life

Girod is married to Susan Pirtle and they have three children. Girod and his wife live in

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70 in Kansas, Interstate 70, between the Kansas River ...

References

External links

University of Kansas
profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Girod, Douglas Chancellors of the University of Kansas University of Kansas faculty University of California, Davis alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni University of Washington alumni 1958 births Living people Educators from Kansas People from Salem, Oregon United States Navy Medical Corps officers Military personnel from Oregon Leaders of the University of Kansas Medical Center