In one of his first official moves since taking the position of Executive Director for Student Health in July, Dr. Bill Purdy has begun to finalize his leadership team.

Dr. Ron Olson was recently promoted to medical director for student health, and Franca Alphin was officially named director of health education and health promotion.

Karen Haith became Student Health's nurse practitioner. Jean Hanson will continue to be the administrative director for student health.

Purdy is also looking to hire another half-time doctor to supplement his decreased clinical hours.

The new structural changes are the most recent in a series instituted after the retirement of former Director Bill Christmas in 2004.

The reorganization process, which included adding an executive director to Student Health's administrative staff, was a joint effort between the University's Division of Student Affairs and the Duke University Medical Center's Department of Community and Family Medicine.

After two lengthy national searches conducted by an outside firm, Purdy was selected from a pool of candidates to serve as executive director. Purdy had previously worked as the medical director for Student Health.

Following Christmas' retirement and during the nearly 18-month search process, Student Health had an interim structure of a triumvirate of directors-a medical director, an administrative director and a director of health promotion and outreach. The executive director now guides the other three directors.

As executive director, Purdy's primary responsibility is to oversee the medical care of the Duke student body through clinical work and health promotion.

"This is a new position, so, day by day, we are trying to figure out what it's all about," he said.

As Purdy took on the new responsibility, Olson was hired to fill the vacant medical director position, which has oversight over the clinical aspect of Student Health. Olson has worked for Duke Student Health for several years and has specialized training in the area of sports medicine.

Franca Alphin, who worked as a dietician at Duke for many years, was named the director of health promotion and health education. Before Purdy's hiring, Alphin was interim director of this area of Student Health.

"Franca is in charge of the peer educators and the promotional aspects of health on the Duke campus," Purdy said.

Karen Haith is Student Health's newest nurse practitioner. A variety of factors contributed to determining her eligibility for the position, Purdy said.

"Karen has a lot of experience in the outpatient clinic and a real interest in taking care of people around the ages of 17 to 35," Purdy said. "We like to get people who have had experience in the medical field for several years and who like to take care of people in this age range."

Purdy said Student Health is in the "final stages" of searching for a new half-time physician.

"Hopefully, we're looking to have someone start on the first of January," Purdy said.

Although several structural changes have been made to Duke Student Health, programmatic changes have yet to be implemented.

"We have just been moving people around, but we haven't started to figure out where Student Health ought to go from here," said Dr. Lloyd Michener, chair of the department of community and family medicine.

Both Purdy and Michener said student input will be an important part of this process."We would like to make sure that we are providing the services not only that [students] need, but also the services that they want," Purdy said.

He added that although the Student Health Advisory Committee is currently comprised of graduate students, he encourages undergraduate students to get involved by contacting Alphin.