Indiana University of Pennsylvania leaders have hired a dean for their proposed college of osteopathic medicine and say the move is an important step toward establishing the state’s first such school on a public campus.

Dr. Miko Rose, 50, comes from the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences in Yakima, Wash. She is associate professor and chief of the Division of Psychiatry in the Department of Clinical Medicine there, as well as assistant dean for clinical education.

Rose is a board-certified physician in psychiatry and neurology and is recognized nationally for wellness programming, according to IUP officials who announced the appointment Thursday.

She was identified from a national search and will begin the new job on Monday. IUP has set her salary at $450,000.

In an interview, Rose said her new position will allow her to continue to advocate for better health care within poor and rural communities.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be joining the Indiana community and to be taking on this role,” she said.

Those involved in the search praised her selection.

“Her desire, training and experiences, as well as her dedication to diversity, equality and inclusivity will uniquely position her and IUP for success,” Dr. T. Clark Simpson, chief medical officer at Punxsutawney Area Hospital, said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

In December 2022, IUP’s Council of Trustees endorsed a resolution allowing the school to explore creating the college. They pointed to a shortage of physicians, specifically a patient-to-doctor ratio of 1,367 to 1 in Pennsylvania, according to United Health Foundation.

Officials at IUP also noted that 57% of doctors of osteopathic medicine practice primary care medicine, and that 1 in 5 work in rural communities, where the need is especially high.

Creating the school will be a multi-year process and require tens of millions of dollars. IUP did not share a total of funds raised to date, but said support has been strong, including a pledge in May of $1 million from Rich Caruso, a 1983 accounting graduate.

A timetable for the new school is not yet set, spokeswoman Michelle Fryling said. Securing accreditation from the American Osteopathic Association’s Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation is a three- to five-year process, Fryling said.

In the interview, Rose said she understands what it means to live in poverty. She said she grew up poor outside of Chicago, relying on food stamps and powdered milk.

She worked early on as an advocate and fundraiser for underserved people. She only considered going to medical school after seeing how a lack of access to health care was a recurring theme in those she and others tried to help.

“We could put 10 roofs over their heads, we could give them buffets of food,” Rose said. “And yet if they didn’t have access to health care, and needs for their health, nothing else really mattered.”

Educating health care professionals to serve in rural and underserved communities is an emphasis at Pacific Northwest. IUP has identified those same populations as being likely to benefit from their proposed college of osteopathic medicine.

At present, the only osteopathic schools of medicine in Pennsylvania are at private institutions. They include Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which has a campus in Erie, as well as a presence at the Greensburg campus of Seton Hill University, a Catholic liberal arts school. Another is the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Duquesne University is nearing completion of its college of osteopathic medicine.

The new IUP school would offer students a less costly pathway to become physicians, said Sam Smith, chairman of IUP’s council of trustees and vice chairman of the Pennsylvania State System Board of Governors.

Rose earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Touro University in New York City. She did her residency at Michigan State University.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)