UAMS promotes Amy Wenger to vice chancellor of Fayetteville campus

Amy Wenger has been promoted to vice chancellor of the Northwest Arkansas regional campus of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Fayetteville.

Wenger will begin the job on Dec. 1. She succeeds Pearl McElfish, who announced last year she was stepping down from the vice chancellor position to focus on her role as the director of community health and research and serve as the associate director of community outreach and engagement at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

According to a news release Wednesday (Oct. 20), Wenger has held multiple leadership roles at UAMS since 2005. She is currently vice chancellor for regional campuses and will continue to oversee that area while UAMS formulates a plan for new leadership. Before that, she served as the chancellor’s chief of staff, as administrator for several areas including women’s health, surgical specialties and the department of nursing and as business officer for both nursing and the Psychiatric Research Institute.

“Amy’s long and varied experience working with programs and leaders across our institution and state makes her the perfect choice to lead our efforts in Northwest Arkansas,” UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson said in a statement. “I am very grateful to Amy for accepting this new role and to Pearl for her leadership of the Northwest Regional Campus for the past five years.”

UAMS, based in Little Rock, is the state’s largest public employer and the state’s only health sciences university.