Hanover
Elizabeth Teisberg, who had been a professor at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth for about four years, collected a total of $1.67 million from the college in 2016, according to recently released federal tax documents.
Those earnings are higher than those of any other Dartmouth employees that year. Second place went to then-Chief Investment Officer Pamela Peedin, with a total compensation of $1.47 million, which included an incentive payment of $873,800.
Both earned more than Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon, who collected compensation totaling $1.35 million that year.
Teisberg’s earnings, which came in the year she left Dartmouth mid-year and included a $1.5 million severance payment, were paid as Geisel was in the midst of restructuring, a process that resulted in the loss of about 30 jobs and a shift of another 285 positions to Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The 990 tax form said Teisberg “retired,” though she is now at University of Texas.
Teisberg, Geisel School of Medicine spokesman Derik Hertel and Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence declined to comment on Teisberg’s compensation, which was first reported by Dartblog, in emails this week.
Lawrence did say that Teisberg was a tenured professor.
Teisberg, who holds master’s and doctorate degrees in engineering from Stanford University, and a master’s in systems science from the University of Virginia, has become a leader in the movement toward value-based health care systems, which aims to reduce costs by tying revenue to the overall health of the population being cared for. She co-wrote the book, Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results, with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter in 2006.
After departing Geisel, Teisberg became a professor at the University of Texas at Austin with joint appointments at Dell Medical School and McCombs School of Business. The medical school is new, supported by $50 million from a foundation run by computer CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, and began welcoming students in June 2016, according to its website. A new teaching hospital, the Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, opened in May 2017.
At Dell, Teisberg serves as executive director of the Value Institute for Health and Care, according to her online faculty biography. The Value Institute develops curriculum and conducts research focused on changes in strategy, culture and measurement in health care aimed at improving health and reducing costs, according to the school’s website.
Teisberg is not the only former Dartmouth faculty member to find her way to Dell. At the Value Institute, Teisberg is joined by Alice Andrews, a former professor and administrator at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, as well as former Geisel visiting professor Scott Wallace.
All of these recruits were preceded in their arrival in Texas by Dr. Richard Freeman Jr., Geisel’s former chairman of the Department of Surgery, who now serves as Dell Medical School’s inaugural vice dean for clinical affairs, according to a 2015 press release announcing his appointment.
Freeman’s role is to “help lead the school’s pursuit of strategies that seek to redesign health care delivery and create excellence in health care research, transdisciplinary programs and interprofessional education,” according to the release.
Freeman, who resigned from his position at Dartmouth in December 2015, received a severance payment of $772,000 in calendar year 2016, according to the recently released Dartmouth tax filing. His total compensation from Dartmouth in 2016 was about $834,000.
Other high earners at Dartmouth in 2016 included then-Provost Carolyn Dever ($809,000), Tuck School of Business Dean Matthew Slaughter ($820,000), and Megan Hammond, a managing director in the investment office ($705,000).
Valley News Staff Writer Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
