Michele Carbone, the embattled director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, will retain his job under a revamped leadership team that will include a chief operating officer and senior adviser as well as new reporting lines, the university announced Thursday.
The restructuring comes as some faculty have called for Carbone to be removed, claiming poor management has tarnished the center’s reputation and jeopardized its federal funding.
Carbone, who has led the center since 2008, said in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he supports the leadership changes and looks forward to continuing the center’s work.
"Our job is to find new ways to treat and prevent cancer in Hawaii and make clinical trials available to patients in Hawaii," he said. "That’s not a small task."
Years of internal disputes over his management came to a head last month when a dozen former and current faculty said they were prompted to petition the Board of Regents to remove Carbone after two failed attempts by UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple to terminate him.
As one of 68 National Cancer Institute-designated centers in the country, the center attracts about $30 million a year in federal research grants. Carbone is paid $412,000 a year, making him the third-highest-paid employee at UH, and he oversees about 300 faculty and staff on the center’s payroll.
Interim UH President David Lassner released details of the new leadership team ahead of a Board of Regents Committee on Academic Affairs meeting at which the center’s leadership was to be discussed in executive session.
"It’s time to move beyond the interpersonal drama that has played out in recent weeks," UH said in a statement detailing its strategy. "We are committed to working together to polish our jewel, the UH Cancer Center, the only designated National Cancer Institute (facility) within 2,500 miles of Hawaii’s cancer patients, hospitals and practitioners."
It was signed by Lassner; regents Chairman John Holzman; UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple; Brian Taylor, Manoa’s interim vice chancellor for research; and Carbone, who did not attend the meeting.
UH has hired Patricia Blanchette as chief operating officer and associate director for administration at the center. Blanchette had been CEO of University Clinical, Education and Research Associates, a nonprofit faculty practice organization created to support UH-Manoa’s medical school.
Carbone and Blanchette will report to Taylor instead of Apple.
Former Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, who hired Carbone and is now a professor at the medical school, will serve as a senior adviser to Carbone and Taylor.
The management changes do not require board approval and have been implemented, according to a UH spokeswoman.
"I’m very happy that Dr. Virginia Hinshaw is back into the loop," Carbone said. "We built this cancer center together."
Regarding Taylor’s new oversight, Carbone said, "I hope this will be a productive reporting line."
He described Blanchette as an experienced professional and said her new role "is needed — the cancer center director cannot do everything."
Five faculty members testified at the regents meeting, asking the board to reconsider the plan and again urging it to remove Carbone. They described the leadership changes as disappointing and unacceptable.
"I am asking you to please remove the director and stop this constant and palpably disruptive, nontransparent and hostile work environment so that we can concentrate on the work we need to do," Unhee Lim, an epidemiologist at the center, testified.
Loic Le Marchand, a senior researcher at the center who says he brought in more than half of the center’s research funding last year, told the regents committee, "I urge you to endorse Chancellor Apple’s decision to dismiss Dr. Carbone. This is the right thing to do not only to bring back credibility to our university leaders, but also for the cancer patients who put their hopes in all of us and for the community at large."
Lynne Wilkens, a faculty member with the epidemiology program, was especially critical of bringing on Hinshaw as an adviser.
"I would ask that you carefully monitor this process because Dr. Hinshaw has been actively involved in running the center," Wilkens said.
In letters sent to the regents over the past few weeks and obtained by the Star-Advertiser, those calling for Carbone’s removal describe him as a vindictive director who retaliates against those who challenge his decisions and has created a hostile and stressful work environment.
Other researchers and employees who have written letters of support credit Carbone with securing renewal of the center’s National Cancer Center designation last year and say that any rancor arises from personal feuds and animosity.
Despite the criticism, Carbone said morale at the center is "very high."
"People who are happy don’t go out and scream that they’re happy," Carbone said. "Those that are unhappy make so much noise that you think they are the majority."
He added, "When I became director, I was asked to make some changes. We were at very high risk of losing our (National Cancer Institute) designation. I was asked to change the status quo. Inevitably there are people who don’t like that. You cannot make omelet without breaking the egg."
Carbone has had more than 20 complaints and grievances filed against him through the faculty union during his tenure, which the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly says is the highest number of reported violations it has handled for any university unit.
But Carbone contended he’s only had nine grievances filed against him by four faculty.
"If you take me aside, forget Michele Carbone, we’ve built a cancer center that’s a real jewel to the university," he said. "It doesn’t belong to anybody but the people of Hawaii. They need to be sure this cancer center is here and is strong."
