Former VA Exec Chosen to Lead OHSU

June 16, 2025
Shereef Elnahal, M.D., M.B.A., will head up Oregon’s only public academic health center and one of its largest employers after failed merger with Legacy Health

Following a period of leadership turmoil and a recently cancelled merger with Legacy Health System, Oregon Health & Science University has chosen Shereef Elnahal, M.D., M.B.A., a former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) executive, as its next president.

As Willamette Week reports, “OHSU has been looking for a new president since October, when Danny Jacobs resigned. Jacobs had irked rank-and-file workers after taking a $700,000 bump to his retirement benefits while asking staff to cut costs. In 2023, he handed out $15 million in bonuses to nonunion staff that weren’t based on merit. After uproar among union workers, he revoked the bonuses for OHSU’s highest-paid administrators.”

In August 2023, OHSU and Legacy Health announced their intent to combine and create an integrated health system. But on May 5 of this year, the organizations entered into a mutual agreement to terminate the transaction. OPB reported that “the proposed merger faced significant public opposition, primarily over concerns that the combined system would hold a monopoly over high-level specialty care in the Portland metro area. OHSU leaders previously said that acquiring Legacy would help the organization solve a lack of capacity and space that has led to some of the longest wait times for specialty care in the country.”

Elnahal was appointed by President Biden to serve as Under Secretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs. From 2016-18, Elnahal also served as the VA’s Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Quality, Safety and Value.

Prior to his role as Under Secretary, Elnahal served as President and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, N.J., the principal academic medical center of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Previously, Elnahal served as commissioner of health for the New Jersey Department of Health, where he oversaw four state psychiatric hospitals. 

Elnahal received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his M.B.A. with Distinction from Harvard Business School. He was a resident in radiation oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he also did a fellowship in patient safety at the Armstrong Institute. He was also appointed by President Obama to the 2015-16 class of White House Fellows.

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