“Our mission is to transform the health of the communities we serve and the Heart Hospital delivers on that promise in life-changing ways,” said Tom Miller, CEO of UofL Health. “We have dedicated the space, assembled the technology and most importantly we have the academic expertise and commitment to make a difference in Kentucky’s biggest health threat.”

According to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, heart disease remains Kentucky’s leading cause of death. The Heart Hospital is designed to change that statistic by saving lives and improving heart health. From the routine to the rare, and advancing research, the specially trained staff is dedicated to taking care of heart patients and their families.

“The UofL Health – Heart Hospital represents the future of heart care, in Kentucky and beyond,” said Lori Stewart Gonzalez, University of Louisville interim president. “This hospital combines comprehensive clinical care with academic expertise, training and breakthrough discoveries to advance heart care around the world.”

The Heart Hospital has more than 100 beds dedicated for heart patients. Rising 15-stories above downtown Louisville, with nearly 280,000 square feet, it provides leading-edge heart care on UofL Health’s academic medical campus. It includes six dedicated cardiac cath labs, two hybrid operating rooms, three electrophysiology labs and three cardiac operating rooms collectively equipped for TAVR, Watchmen Flex and heart transplant procedures. More than 300 heart care professionals make up the Heart Hospital team, with preventative and follow-up care extended to more than 30 locations across Kentucky and Indiana.

“Convenient access is essential to impactful care, that’s why the Heart Hospital extends care beyond downtown and into our community,” said , UofL Physicians – Cardiology Associates. “With early diagnosis, customized interventions and regular check-ups, our goal is to prevent the need for advanced care. But, if advance care is needed, the Heart Hospital means patients get the very best care, and still stay close to home.”

As part of UofL Health and through its alignment with both the University of Louisville School of Medicine and the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, the Heart Hospital leverages the advantage of academic medicine. Medical heart firsts attributed to the UofL Health team include three world’s first transplants and cardiac stem cell procedures, along with a first-in-the nation procedure to relieve the symptoms of heart failure to improve cardiac function and quality of life. The Heart Hospital team is also credited with dozens of state firsts and has celebrated more than .

“When you come to the Heart Hospital you get access to the heart care standards of the future, today,” said , chair of the UofL Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. “We leverage our academic advantage to save and improve more lives. I’m proud to be part of a team committed to research and developing innovative heart care.”

All UofL Health – Heart Hospital locations are now available to assist patients, downtown and at more than 30 locations across the community.��

By joining JED Campus, UofL demonstrates its commitment to the emotional well-being of its students. JED Campuses embark on a multi-year strategic collaboration that not only assesses and enhances the work that is already being done but also helps create positive, lasting, systemic change in the campus community. The program provides schools with a framework for supporting student mental health, as well as assessment tools, feedback reports, a strategic plan and ongoing support from the JED higher education team.

“Our students’ wellbeing is our top priority,” said UofL Interim President Lori Stewart Gonzalez. “We know the COVID pandemic has been particularly hard on our students and others across the country. JED Campus will provide another tool to help us best protect and support our students throughout their college careers.”��

��“The college years are the age when many mental health issues first manifest, and it can be a time of significant stress and pressure,” said JED CEO John MacPhee. “JED Campus helps schools by working with them to survey everything their university does to support their students’ emotional health and find practical ways to augment these efforts in a comprehensive way. We believe the implementation of a campus-wide approach to mental health will lead to safer, healthier communities, and likely greater student retention.”

UofL’s membership in JED Campus begins with establishing an interdisciplinary, campus-wide team to assess, support and implement program, policy and system improvements and completing a confidential, self-assessment survey on its mental health promotion, substance use and suicide prevention efforts. Upon completion of the assessment, JED subject matter experts provide schools with a comprehensive feedback report identifying successes and opportunities for enhancements. Over the course of four years, the University of Louisville will collaborate with JED to help implement enhancements. All self-assessment responses and feedback reports are confidential.����

When complete, UofL Hospital will offer more than 360 beds, each in a private room, 20 operating rooms, plus a new 24-bed observation unit. Alongside the increased clinical space, the expansion will include an enhanced visitor experience with a new lobby and waiting area, along with updates to the gift shop and coffee shop.

“This new tower is a demonstration of UofL Health’s commitment to transform the health of all the communities we serve, here in Louisville and across the Commonwealth,“ said Tom Miller, UofL Health CEO. “UofL Hospital is one of the anchors in our downtown academic medical center campus, a hub of specialized care, progressive academic research and innovative treatments. We are investing here to meet demand and increase access everywhere.”

The hospital expansion also will lead to an expansion of the UofL Health team, with approximately 325 new jobs being created. Positions will include nurses, plus clinical and non-clinical support. New hires and their dependents are immediately eligible for , funded by UofL Health, to the University of Louisville.

“By expanding UofL Hospital to meet today’s medical needs, we are also investing to grow the physicians, nurses and other allied health professionals of tomorrow,” said Lori Gonzalez, University of Louisville interim president. “Together, with UofL Health, our blended mission of healing, teaching and research is building a stronger health care workforce and healthier future for Kentucky.”

UofL Hospital is the primary teaching and research hospital for UofL Health, affiliated with the University of Louisville. Its Level 1 Trauma Center, one of only two adult trauma centers in the state, includes a comprehensive burn unit and admits more than 3,500 patients each year. The hospital is home to Kentucky’s first Comprehensive Stroke Center and includes UofL Health – . The cancer center specializes in treating cancers of the nervous system, breast, gastrointestinal and reproductive systems, head and neck, lungs and skin.

According to the ASHE, an association devoted to professionals who design, build, maintain and operate hospitals and other health care facilities, there are nearly 1,700 individual teaching hospitals in the United States.��Of these, roughly 300 are considered major teaching hospitals, including UofL Health.

“Academic medical centers offer significant advantages, especially in complex cases,” said Jason Smith, UofL Health chief medical officer. “The treatments of tomorrow are available today at UofL Health with the collective wisdom of expert researchers and clinicians. The new tower allows us to make that care available to more patients.”

The hospital is licensed to operate up to 404 beds, but the existing facility limited operating capacity to 340 over the past several years. The combined impact of the additional beds and the observation unit creates room for nearly 50 more patients and reduces wait times as patients transition between different levels of care. The seven-story tower expansion will also include the infrastructure to accommodate two more floors for future growth.

The investments at UofL Hospital are part of an overall commitment to increase access to care in the region, particularly in federally medically underserved areas (MUAs). Over the past two years, UofL Health has opened five Urgent Care Plus locations, added two new locations for the Brown Cancer Center and recruited more than 140 new physicians. Two of the urgent cares, a cancer center location and more than 100 physicians are specifically located to serve people living in MUAs.

More than 1.5 million patients seek care through UofL Health each year, with patients from each of Kentucky’s 120 counties and southern Indiana.

With construction now underway, the tower is expected to open to its first patients in early 2024.��

In her , Gonzalez noted a few differences between the 2022-25 Strategic Plan and the .

The “work” and “learn” strategies will remain in the new plan. However, the current “invest” strategy will change to “connect” to better capture the many ways in which UofL actively partners with the region and world.

“We want our community to turn to UofL for student interns who will hopefully become full-time employees. We also want to highlight our capacities that make UofL a resource and innovation engine for our city and state,” said Gonzalez. “In turn, we want to keep as many of our graduates in Louisville and in Kentucky for a lasting strong economic impact on the communities that we serve.”

The new 2022-25 Strategic Plan focuses on more high-level, aspirational goals. The decision was made to focus on the primary goals and desired outcomes without pre-determining exactly which specific activities must be performed. This allows for more flexibility since those charged with implementation can use the expertise of the entire UofL community to determine detailed activity plans.

The new plan’s aspirational goals include an emphasis on strengthening the element of “trust” among university employees – a value that Gonzalez said has been shaken due to the many current interim positions across the university. She also added that, while the university does a great job recruiting outstanding employees, the new plan will address employee retention. Professional and leadership development opportunities, compensation, streamlining operations as well as further developing the equity and inclusion mission are a few of the strategies Gonzalez noted for the “work” component.

Where students are concerned, the new plan will include strategies that develop the student beyond classroom learning. The goal will be to have students working in the community to gain experience and the opportunity to apply learning. Gonzalez said that, as COVID-19 pandemic safety measures are relaxed and more students return to campus, engaged learning activities will increase in the coming years.

“The future of higher education calls on us to understand the many different life experiences, which our students bring to their college experience,” said Gonzalez. “We also must be prepared to address barriers to higher education such as financial, personal and professional concerns.”

The Strategic Plan co-chairs will solicit feedback from faculty, staff and students via an through the end of May. Input received will be considered for the final version of the plan, which will launch in September 2022.

“We want to move on our strategies right away to maximize positive impacts on our university and our community,” said Gonzalez. “Input from the UofL community on how we develop our new plan is essential. The is OUR plan. This is OUR university. We all work together to make our world a better place.”

See the for more information, updates and resources.

The event, hosted by the , honored UofL faculty and staff nominated by their colleagues or self-nominated for outstanding research and scholarship accomplishments in fiscal year 2021.

“I often say that UofL is a true research engine, continuously blazing new trails and seeking answers to important questions,” said Interim President Lori Stewart Gonzalez, speaking at the event. “Our researchers, scholars and research administrators are the very backbone of that work and they deserve this celebration and recognition.”��

In addition to the roughly 90 recognized, six major awards were presented to:��

• • Kenneth Palmer, of the School of Medicine, who won Researcher of the Year, in part, for work to address the global COVID-19 pandemic, securing $8.5 million from the Department of Defense to adapt a novel broad-spectrum antiviral as a coronovirus-fighting nasal spray;
  • Hui Wang, of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, who won Emerging Researcher of the Year for work to advance solid ion conductors and electrochemical energy storage;��
  • Becky Antle, of the Kent School of Social Work, who won Collaborator of the Year for serving as an evaluator on numerous groundbreaking projects with principal investigators across the university;
  • Monica Wendel, of the School of Public Health and Information Sciences, who won the Grand Challenger Award in Empowering our Communities in part for work to launch a new Health Equity Innovation Hub at UofL, backed by Humana Inc. and the Humana Foundation;
  • Shirish Barve, of the School of Medicine, who won the Grand Challenger Award in Advancing our Health for work to uncover the connections and impacts of alcohol on the body and organ injury and studying the gut/brain axis in HIV and aging; and
  • Joshua Spurgeon, of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, who won the Grand Challenger Award in Engineering our Future Economy for work to create clean fuels using just water, carbon dioxide and sunlight, paving the way for more low-carbon power.

In addition to presenting awards, the event also highlighted the Office of Research and Innovation’s recently launched Ascending Star Fellowship program, which provides mentorship, funding and other support to high-performing associate professors. The inaugural class includes Cheri Levinson, Brandon McCormack and Kaila Story, all from the College of Arts and Sciences.��

Kevin Gardner, UofL’s Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation, said his office launched this inaugural awards event to recognize faculty and staff for their contributions to UofL’s research and scholarship.��

In the past fiscal year, their work helped bring in record $201.5 million to support groundbreaking work that saves and improves lives and shapes our society and culture.��And, UofL recently received another consecutive Research-1 designation from the , placing it among just 4% of schools considered.��

“What we celebrate and recognize reflects our values as an organization and as a community of scholars,” Gardner said. “Each researcher, scholar and administrator being celebrated is absolutely critical to our important work here at UofL, and we want you to know your efforts are appreciated.”

A native of Rockcastle County, Kentucky, Gonzalez has served as UofL executive vice president and university provost since April 2021.

“I am humbled to step into this leadership role at a time when our university has tremendous momentum,” Gonzalez said. “Our students are flourishing; our faculty are changing lives; our staff members are performing at an extraordinary level; and our passionate and loyal supporters, alumni and fans have never been more committed to elevating the University of Louisville.”����

Gonzalez previously served from 2015 until the spring of 2021 as the vice chancellor for academic, faculty and student affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.��Prior to that role, she held academic and administrative positions at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, the University of Kentucky and Appalachian State University, where she served as provost and executive vice chancellor for three years.

In addition, she served as special advisor to the senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina General Administration, the North Carolina public higher education authority.

In her first act as interim president, Gonzalez appointed deputy athletic director Josh Heird as interim director of athletics, effective immediately. Heird has been deputy AD since 2019.

Reporting directly to President Neeli Bendapudi, Gonzalez works closely with deans, vice presidents�� to advance the teaching, research and service missions of the university.����

Gonzalez is focused on��getting university members back on campus, safely,��over the summer and by the fall as the pandemic lingers.��She also��wants to��help the��campus community��rebuild��its sense of belonging.��

“The human connection is part of the fabric of a��university.��You know, it’s in those moments��you’re walking to the library, you’re going to get a cup of coffee and you see someone that you haven’t seen in a while and you catch up.��I think being detached (during the pandemic)��increased everyone’s anxiety. I know it did mine.��So��any problems become a huge problem. Feelings get hurt more quickly. There’s something about sitting face-to-face with people,” she said.

For the long-term, Gonzalez wants��to partner with the campus community on deciding how we will define and measure being a premier metropolitan university.��

“There’s no set of criteria that would say you��are��a premier, metropolitan university. There are tons of��metrics out there��you can do, so how are we going to define that?��How are we going to measure and operationalize what that will mean for UofL? And becoming a premier, anti-racist campus goes hand in hand with that,” she said. “What is��it going to mean to��show we’re moving closer and closer to being an anti-racist campus? At the end of the day, how will we��know that we’ve moved the needle on both of those things?”����

UofL News had a chance to sit down with the new provost, originally from a small town in eastern Kentucky,��to get��to know more about her��personal and professional��background, as well as her goals as provost.��

UofL News: What motivated you to work in higher education?��
Gonzalez:��I’m a speech-language pathologist by education and early on in my career I was invited to do a series of continuing education activities for other speech��pathologists��and��I realized I loved teaching.��But the real reason, I think, is my father. He was a graduate of Berea College, he was the first in our family to go to college and education was always talked about in my house. He encouraged people in our little town to get a degree and at his funeral, I remember somebody saying, ‘I’m a nurse because your dad told me I could be.’��I was��just��inculcated with the notion that education is a transformative experience. You can transform a person, a family, a community and really our world. That’s my ‘why.‘

UofL News: Did you have a favorite course in college that you remember? A favorite professor?��
Gonzalez:��Yes.��I took a course in phonology��with my professor,��Alice Dyson, who later became my mentor in my doctoral program.��Studying��phonology is��working out the puzzle of a child’s speech when no one can understand them. They have their own rules.��I started unlocking the puzzle of��children’s��speech��and that course set me on a career path of wanting to untangle challenges. When��someone comes to my office��with��a real need and it’s a tricky situation, it’s a puzzle��and I��have to��find the pieces. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s a��barrier. Sometimes it’s connecting someone to someone else. But it’s all a puzzle that you can solve.

UofL News:��Do you have a��favorite thing��yet��about UofL?����
Gonzalez:��The warm, welcoming people.��I’ve been astounded by it.��Even from the time it was announced that I would assume the position, people reached out to me and were so welcoming.��I haven’t been able to interact a lot��with large groups of students, faculty or staff, but I think it’s a spirit here that is recognizable.

UofL News:��What is your favorite quote or best piece of advice you’ve received?��
Gonzalez:��It’s a proverb:��fall down��seven times, get up eight. It’s all about resilience. When somebody stumbles, sometimes they think that a failure is going to derail them forever. But what you do is, you get yourself up, dust off and then you go forward. You reflect on what happened, but��you just get up every time, every time, every time.

UofL News: How do you like to spend your free time?��
Gonzalez:��I’m a��baker. I like to bake. It’s one of the reasons��I’ll��be��glad to get back into an office, so I can bring baked goods in!��I read a lot.��I also��like to walk. My husband and I, we walk every day when we’re together.��We��also��enjoy renovating homes.��We like to get a house that needs a little��love and put��our own stamp on it. We’ve done that three times.

UofL News: What do you want our students, faculty and staff to know about you?����
Gonzalez:����I would want everyone to know that I see academics as our core mission. It is why we are here. So, we��have to��be a��student-first campus focused��on��how��they can be successful as students and as engaged citizens upon graduation.��But we cannot do that without dedicated, engaged faculty and staff. I’m committed to making sure that our students are successful and supporting and developing our faculty and staff. It’s this synergy we get when we all��have the goal of creating the next generation of engaged leaders,��the��next generation of health care professionals,��poets, musicians, etc.��As we do all those things together, it is, as we say in the Cardinal Principles, our Noble Purpose.��

Lori Stewart Gonzalez, vice chancellor for academic, faculty and student affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, will assume the position as UofL’s provost by April 1, pending approval by the UofL Board of Trustees. She succeeds Beth A. Boehm, who has served as provost since 2018. Boehm is returning to her role as dean of the Graduate School.

Reporting directly to the president, the executive vice president and university provost is the university’s chief academic officer, overseeing undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The provost works closely with deans, vice presidents and other administrative officials to advance the teaching, research and service missions of the university.

“The University of Louisville is a unique institution that combines a national reputation for teaching and research with a firm commitment to its community,” Gonzalez said. “This opportunity to make a real difference both locally and globally stands out among higher education institutions. I look forward to being part of its continued and growing success.”

Gonzalez brings a wealth of administrative experience to the role of provost. As vice chancellor at the UT Health Science Center since 2015, she oversees the offices of academic, faculty, student and international affairs, education services, equity and diversity, community engagement and others. As interim dean in 2016-17, she oversaw the departments of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Health Informatics and Information Management, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy.

Previously, she had served as senior advisor to the senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina General Administration, as provost and executive chancellor at Appalachian State University, and associate dean and then dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Kentucky.

“Dr. Gonzalez boasts an impressive resume of strong academic qualifications and administrative experience in the liberal arts and sciences and the health sciences,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “Just as important, she brings high energy, a devotion to students, faculty and staff and a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. I look forward to working with her as we continue to advance UofL as a premier anti-racist metropolitan research university here and beyond.”

Search Committee chairs David Jenkins and Gerry Bradley, deans of the Kent School of Social Work and School of Dentistry, respectively, called Gonzalez a great fit for UofL.

“After a national search including thorough vetting and conversations with the finalists, Dr. Gonzalez clearly stood out,” Bradley and Jenkins said. “She brings a breadth of leadership experience in academia and was the consensus choice across all campus constituencies.�� Dr. Gonzalez showed a clear and decisive commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion that fits perfectly with President Bendapudi’s strategic work in this area. And she was truly impressive in her interactions with students, faculty and staff. We look forward to welcoming her to the University of Louisville family.”

A native of Rockcastle County, Kentucky, Gonzalez earned her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from UK and her master’s degree in communication disorders from Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her doctorate from the University of Florida Department of Speech.