Growing up in a hardscrabble Pennsylvania town, the newly announced next chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) had little inkling he'd one day be helming a growing academic medical center in Little Rock, Ark.

 

Born the middle child of three to an electrician father and homemaker mother in the small, Poconos Mountains town of Stroudsburg, Pa., Daniel Rahn grew up with working class roots and an Ivy League mind.

 

From the start, Rahn shone in the public schools of his 5,000-person hometown, participating in student government, ski racing, tennis, academics and music. After his graduation in 1968, he left Stroudsburg for somewhere quite different: New Haven, Conn. to attend Yale University as a physics major.

 

"I had a love for the sciences and for understanding how fundamental systems work," Rahn said, explaining his physics major, "but I'm an extrovert, like to interact with people, and I became more interested in doing something of more immediate, apparent relevance, so I decided to change to pre-med in my junior year."

 

A summer job assisting in Stroudsburg's operating room between his junior and senior years cemented Rahn's interest, and he was accepted to Yale Medical School.

 

Just before starting medical school, Rahn married Lana Joyce, a Stroudsburg girl from his high school class whom he had been dating through most of his college years.

 

He graduated medical school in 1976 and did an internal medicine residency, an additional year as chief resident under Sam Their, MD, and a rheumatology fellowship, all also at Yale.

 

Lyme Disease had been newly discovered just at the time of his rheumatology fellowship, and Rahn was able to work with Allen C. Steere, MD, who is credited with identifying the disease. He became involved in Lyme Disease research and continued that work post-fellowship into the next eight years as he went into practice in internal medicine and rheumatology in nearby Guilford, Conn.

 

Rahn in 1988 left private practice to return once more to Yale, this time as full-time faculty (he had maintained a clinical faculty appointment and done voluntary teaching during his private practice years). He became clinical director for the Lyme Disease program and directed the faculty practice for the Department of Medicine at Yale, furthering his Lyme Disease research and academic publishing over the next three years.

 

Then, in 1991 a change came. A friend and colleague urged Rahn to come with him to consider a position as vice-chair of the Department of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. He agreed to visit, and unexpectedly fell in love with the school.

 

"I had been in New Haven since I went as an undergrad in 1968," Rahn remembered. "Lana and I had three kids, and the oldest was seven. We decided to just do it."

 

The family would spend the next 18 years in Augusta, Ga. as Rahn ascended through the hierarchy of MCG to in 2001 become president of the institution.

 

Jobs for Rahn have always been a natural evolution of his previous positions; he's never actually had to go on a job search. Yet again, in 2008, he was contacted by a search firm asking him to submit his name for the newly announced chancellorship of the University of Arkansas.

 

"I had heard the general announcement, but had no idea of applying for it," he said. "Then the search firm asked me, and still I initially thought I would not be interested."

 

He took a second look at the institution, changed his mind, and officially entered the candidate pool from which he would emerge as the top choice.

 

Rahn said what most appealed to him about UAMS was the institution's forward trajectory, already well established. He cited as evidence of this growth among other things the expanded facilities and educational programs, the new hospital, the new College of Public Health, the new Northwest Arkansas campus, increased enrollment applications and program offerings, the increased research activity with an emphasis on cancer and more translational science, the connectivity to the community offered through the Area Health Education Centers around the state, and the focus on improving the health of the entire state's population.

 

"All this really positions the institution to focus its energy on the health issues of the people they are there to serve and also on the science and economic development," Rahn said. "Being a public, academic health center and being the only academic health center in the state, provides opportunities and carries responsibilities. As a focal point of how the State of Arkansas and the region are going to address the health needs of the area and also advance the science and provide the workforce in the future, UAMS plays a very, very important role."

 

Nationwide, he said, the healthcare landscape is changing as it struggles to address issues of coverage, costs and quality, and UAMS must be prepared to adapt to those changes.

 

"I'm confident that the new administration in Washington under President Obama is determined to put forward some comprehensive strategies to address those issues. Of course, the current issue of the sagging economy and increasing numbers of unemployed and therefore, uninsured or underinsured individuals, poses a problem for academic health centers nationwide. It's just part of the landscape," he said. "At UAMS, we're going to have to operate within available dollars and continuously strive to improve efficiency and quality at the same time. But that's part of what we do."

 

Rahn said that his leadership style is one of coalition-building.

 

"I'm excited by teams," he said, his voice full of energy. "I think that very little that's of value is accomplished individually. It usually involves pulling together coalitions, partnerships and teams, and I hope that we can do that to increasing levels of effectiveness. I hope that we will be able to forge the right kinds of partnerships in education, patient care and research with the practicing medical community while at the same time advancing the mission of UAMS."

 

It will be several months before the Rahns leave their Augusta home for the new frontier of Little Rock. The chancellor-to-be said he and Lana are a little nervous about such a major move, but are overall very excited about the new discoveries to be made in their new home.

 

Rahn still plays piano (mostly classical), regularly and enjoys running, sailing, playing tennis, and hiking. He and Lana are active members of their church in Augusta and co-teach a large Sunday school class. Every so often, the family enjoys getting away to a place they have in the mountains of North Carolina to hike with their two dogs—a Treeing Walker Hound and a rescued shelter dog.

 

"But mostly, I work," admitted Rahn, with a smile.

 

Their children are all grown and out of the house. Jason, 27, is working making handmade guitars on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Becky, 24, is completing the physician assistant program at MCG and is engaged to be married in the fall. The youngest, Zack, 22, is a student in his last year at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

 

One thing that has stood out to him about Arkansas and the university system is the abundant friendliness and optimism. "People have been very welcoming. It seems to be a community that is bullish on its own future, and I think that's important. People seem to have a sense of pride," he noted.

 

 "Professionally, I'm looking forward to getting to know the leadership, faculty, staff and students at UAMS, but also getting to know the community and the public and private partners with the institution," Rahn said, "I'm excited about meeting them and just learning a new state. I've learned a lot about Georgia these past two decades, and I'm very much looking forward to learning about Arkansas."