The four finalists vying to become dean of the medical partnership between Georgia Regents University and the University of Georgia will visit Augusta and Athens in the coming weeks to meet with faculty, staff, students and others.

Visits begin at UGA on July 23.

The finalists include:

  • Frederick "Rick" Barr, the Suzan B. Thames Professor and chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center
  • Klea Bertakis, professor and chairwoman of the department of family and community medicine at the University of California, Davis
  • Michael Kozal, professor of medicine in the section of infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine and acting chief of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System medical service
  • Charles Wiener, professor of medicine and physiology and director of international education and training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

The four-year medical education partnership is designed to address the state’s physician shortage.

A 15-member committee conducted a national search to replace Barbara Schuster, the partnership's first dean, who resigned from the position in May.