Chaos at the college

UW Health Sciences faculty are rebelling against their dean, who has sought to reorganize the college. Directors for both WIND and WWAMI resigned Monday and a formal resolution process has begun.

Professors and department heads from the University of Wyoming’s College of Health Sciences have accused their dean, Jacob Warren, of engaging in nepotism to benefit his spouse and of costing the college more than $10 million in grant funding by altering grant applications before submission.

Those allegations are contained in a 12-page letter calling for a formal dispute resolution process. The letter was penned by two faculty members in the college but shared with the Laramie Reporter by others who had access to it.

The allegations paint a picture of a college in a state of chaos — a depiction that gains credibility in light of other recent developments.

University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences. // Photo: Ashton Hacke

One week ago today, the college’s seven division heads began casting votes in a poll administered by an external arbiter. The poll asked the division heads if they had confidence in the dean’s ability to perform his duties and lead the college. Ultimately, five of the seven leaders cast votes, each of them indicating they had “no confidence” in the dean.

By end of day Tuesday, one of those division leaders, Sandy Root-Elledge, was placed on administrative leave and told she could resign or be removed. Root-Elledge had worked in the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities for nearly two decades, leading WIND as its director for the last seven years.

By midday Wednesday, another division leader was given the same ultimatum. Brant Schumaker had served as director of the WWAMI medical education program since 2021.

Both Root-Elledge and Schumaker have now resigned.

Dean Warren was previously the head of a rural health center at Georgia’s Mercer University School of Medicine; he came to UW and became its Dean of Health Sciences in the summer of 2022. The letter makes plain that faculty across the college have had issues with the dean since the beginning.

“Our initial concerns were attributed to misunderstandings or the typical growing pains of any change,” the letter alleges. “However, the evidence has shown a drastic departure from the collaborative history of (College of Health Sciences) leadership whereby the Dean displays a pattern of autocratic leadership style in disregard of shared governance where he consistently abuses a position of administrative power, at times in concert with his spouse, who also holds a high-level administrative position, to gain personal advantages in research funding application and budgetary decisions and also the dispersal of UW resources.”

The letter was drafted by two faculty members and signed by another 14 employees — several of them high-ranking division leaders, including Root-Elledge and Schumaker, as well as the Dean of Nursing, the Dean of Pharmacy and the Director of Kinesiology & Health.

Neither Warren nor his spouse responded directly to a request for comment. But an email from UW Spokesman Chad Baldwin speaking for both of them — as well as Provost Kevin Carman and UW President Ed Seidel — noted the letter “should not have been made available to the media or the public.”

“While we will follow the university’s established process for considering requests under University Regulation 2-2, our initial assessment is that the complaint contains numerous inaccuracies and falsehoods, some of which improperly impugn the integrity of Dean Warren and others,” Baldwin writes. “The president and the provost have considered and will continue to be open to hearing from faculty and staff members who disagree, but the university’s administration supports actions taken by Dean Warren and his vision for the future of the college. Change can be difficult, but Dean Warren has the backing of UW’s administration.”

Neither of the letter’s authors would comment for this story. Root-Elledge and Schumaker confirmed their resignations but would not comment on specifics regarding the culture in the College of Health Sciences or the allegations against its dean.

The letter claims faculty have tried to resolve their issues informally but to no avail, necessitating their call for a more formal resolution process.

“There have been no noticeable changes in the Dean’s behavior following the consistent reporting of unjust, inequitable, and prohibited decision-making, which led to a non-inclusive working environment,” the letter alleges. “Evidence has also suggested that certain actions may have also violated federal regulations.”

Alleged interference

The letter alleges that Dean Jacob Warren has created an environment where communication is strained and collaborative decision-making is non-existent, and that the dean’s behavior is hurting “employees’ and entire units’ abilities to effectively function, and resulting in financial and talent loss at UW.”

When a new Wyoming Telehealth Center was announced in May, it came as a surprise to College of Health employees. The announcement would have a direct impact on many of them, especially those in the Wyoming Institute of Disabilities (WIND) who were currently running the grants or programs that could presumably be moved to support the new center.

According to the letter, one employee tried to reach out to the dean, voicing their displeasure with the announcement via email.

“Three weeks later the Dean requested the employee attend a meeting with him where he proceeded to chastise the employee regarding the email and threatening to involve Human Resources in the future,” the letter alleges. “The Dean followed up the meeting by sending a complaint to the employee’s direct supervisor regarding the perceived insubordination. The employee submitted a complaint to Human Resources because they felt that the threats by the Dean were retaliation for their criticism of the Dean’s handling of the Wyoming Center for Telehealth announcement.”

That employee resigned, as did another, according to the letter. Yet another employee submitted a separate complaint to Human Resources, alleging the dean had tried to intimidate them.

The dean’s push to move certain programs from WIND into the new telehealth center caused other problems, according to faculty. Chief among these faculty concerns are the times Warren has influenced or changed grant applications and, the faculty allege, lost the university significant federal funds in the process.

As WIND was preparing to submit an application for a sizable CDC grant, Dean Warren instructed the applicant to remove WIND from the application. The faculty allege that decision cost the college millions.

“His explanation as to why WIND could not be included was that the division was ‘in transition,’” the letter alleges. “The grant for $2.4 million was submitted but not funded. Despite high scores for the vision of the project, grant reviewers specifically called out a lack of administrative and organizational capacity (i.e., WIND’s role in the project) within their decision not to fund, which was removed at the Dean’s command.”

Another grant application — asking for $7.8 million over five years from the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence — went unreviewed by the National Institutes of Health. The faculty letter alleges that was “likely” because it was ineligible after the dean potentially altered project proposals before submission.

“(The proposal authors) did not receive the final copy of the grant, nor did they receive final confirmation that their budgets were retained as written,” the letter states.

Alleged nepotism

The faculty also allege that Dean Warren has abused his position of power to benefit his spouse, Bryant Smalley, who also works as an administrator at the university and has at least previously worked as a professor in the College of Health Sciences.

In one instance, WIND was preparing to submit an application for a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant in collaboration with the Wyoming Department of Health.

“In June, the Dean instructed WIND to cease and desist work on the grant and turn over their resources to him,” the letter alleges. “The grant was submitted to HRSA on June 22nd, with Dr. Smalley (the Dean’s spouse) listed as the Principal Investigator.”

In another instance, the faculty accuse Warren and Smalley of knowing more about a job candidate than they let on, even as Smalley led the search committee.

“Prior to the (campus) visit, Dr. Smalley stated to the search committee members that he was unaware of how the candidate found out about the position,” the letter alleges. “However, the candidate shared openly during their interview that the Dean had alerted them. In speaking with Human Resources / Talent Acquisition, best practices for fair hiring procedures would have had Dr. Smalley recuse himself from decisions regarding the known candidate. However, Dr. Smalley did not recuse himself at any point during the search process.”

Smalley works as UW’s associate vice president for research. Before that, he was a tenured professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Health, which is a division of the College of Health Sciences.

The faculty letter raises concerns not about Smalley’s professorship, but about his prestigious placement within the college as the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Rural Health. That appointment allegedly occurred without the division head’s knowledge despite the fact that the division head would be his immediate supervisor.

And that position came with a generous salary.

“Despite concerns voiced by the DK&H unit head, Dr. Smalley’s 9-month base salary was assigned at a rate that is equivalent to 160 percent of longest serving (19 years) full professor in DK&H, 165 percent of a different full professor and endowed chair in DK&H, and 176 percent of the unit head’s base salary,” the letter alleges.

If the formal dispute resolution process does not resolve the issue, the matter could advance to a hearing committee, according to University of Wyoming Regulation 2-2. At that stage, the process could become public.

“The hearing shall be held in confidence unless the Complainant requests, in writing, a public hearing,” university regulation states. “In that event, the (hearing committee) may, at its discretion, allow a public hearing.”