Dr. Jonathan Ellen (above), a former leader in the St. Pete Innovation District, has been replaced by Mike Griffin as leader of the USF consolidation task force. Courtesy of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital
By Crow’s Nest Staff
The task force that is helping plan the consolidation of the USF system’s three campuses has a new chairman.
Dr. Jonathan Ellen, who had led the 13-member task force since its inception, resigned this week, shortly after he resigned as CEO of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
The new chairman will be Mike Griffin, a task force member and chairman of its subcommittee on student success, academic programs and campus identity.
Griffin’s promotion to task force chairman was announced Dec. 13 by the state board that oversees the Florida university system.
The board also announced that the vacancy on the task force will be filled by Debbie Sembler, a former trustee of the USF system and former chair of the USF St. Petersburg Campus Board.
Griffin has a master’s in business administration from USF Tampa and served two terms as student body president there, according to a news release from the state board and USF.
He is senior managing director for Savills Studley Occupier Services, a commercial real estate firm, and a former chairman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.
Ellen’s departure came amid upheaval at All Children’s Hospital following a Tampa Bay Times investigation that documented longstanding, serious problems in the hospital’s pediatric heart surgery unit.
Ellen and two other All Children’s administrators resigned and the chair of the hospital’s department of surgery stepped down.
Ellen, who became a prominent civic activist after arriving in St. Petersburg six years ago, also resigned as president of the St. Pete Innovation District, a group that represents USF St. Petersburg, All Children’s, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, the Poynter Institute and other research, education and health care establishments.
Martin Tadlock, USF St. Petersburg’s regional chancellor, will replace Ellen as the innovation district’s president, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
