Samuel Ruth

Background

About Samuel Ruth

At Isaacson, Miller, I specialize in leadership searches across academic medicine — partnering with colleagues and clients to recruit deans, department chairs, and other senior leaders for schools of medicine, dentistry, and public health.Before entering executive search, I spent more than a decade working inside higher education — first as a staffer, then as a manager and leader. I started my career at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, where I learned the realities of academic operations from the inside out: patient flow and phone trees, clinical signage and marketing, web strategy and communications. That experience shaped how I think about leadership — not as an abstract exercise in governance, but as the daily work of systems, people, and mission.In search, I’ve had the chance to broaden that “deep” institutional understanding across dozens of campuses and health systems nationwide. I’ve helped to recruit deans and other senior leaders who are driving the next generation of education, discovery, and care — including the appointment of deans at six U.S. dental schools, roughly ten percent of the sitting deans in the country.I’m motivated by the conviction that great leadership in academic medicine changes how institutions serve their communities — and that connecting those leaders to the right place and mission is work worth doing well.Selected past searches include:Dean of Dentistry, Columbia UniversityChairs of Internal Medicine, Radiology and Surgery, Yale UniversityDirector, UPMC Hillman Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of PittsburghDean of Dentistry; Dean of Public Health, University of LouisvilleChair of Internal Medicine, University of IowaDean of Dentistry; Chair of Biostatistics, UABFounding Dean of Public Health, UTSW