DAVIE — As Dr. Harry Moon settles into his chair behind a cherrywood desk at Nova Southeastern University, he doesn’t have time to get comfortable.

Moon, who became president of the university four months ago, already is reimagining what the university must become to meet the complex healthcare challenges of the next decade.

“Florida’s aging population is growing fast,” Moon says. “We don’t have the luxury of being reactive anymore. We need to be proactive.”

Moon inherits a university with an outsized role in Florida’s health workforce. NSU graduates more healthcare professionals than any other institution in the state. However, with physician and nurse shortages mounting, gaps in care widening, and technology transforming clinical practice, the bar is rising and NSU must evolve quickly to stay ahead.

A former surgeon and healthcare executive, Moon steps into leadership at a critical juncture. The demand for doctors, nurses, therapists, and dentists is climbing steadily, especially in underserved and elderly communities. Yet, NSU’s medical schools — despite high tuition — rank lower than many of Florida’s public institutions in areas like research output and primary care, according to rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

As president, Moon’s mission is to develop NSU into a leader in health education and research. Competition for the brightest students, researchers, and faculty is fierce: Florida has the fourth-largest number of medical schools of any state and several more are proposed.

He and his leadership team will need to predict the medical jobs of the future. They will need to build relationships in the community to get their students training, form relationships with pharmaceutical companies to participate in drug trials, and lure educators and mentors to compete with other universities.

“I want us to rise to the top so we can make a difference in the future,” Moon says. “We want to recruit the best and brightest.”

A change at the top

Moon succeeds Dr. George Hanbury , who served as NSU’s top leader for over 14 years and presided over a period of expansion in enrollment, infrastructure, and academic programs. Although based in Davie, NSU has expanded its reach across Florida — an achievement that strengthens its ability to address healthcare needs statewide. Beyond Davie, NSU has eight regional campuses in Florida: Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, Palm Beach Gardens, Miramar, Miami, Dania Beach, plus extensions in Denver and Puerto Rico.

In Florida, NSU’s dominance in graduate healthcare education comes from the varied professionals it educates: The university has eight medical-related colleges — pharmacy, optometry, dentistry, psychology, nursing, allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine and health care sciences.

Now, Moon is tasked with building on the foundation of his predecessor and giving NSU a sharper purpose. That means graduating medical professionals with strong clinical and research skills, less debt, and a deeper understanding of modern technology’s increasing role in healthcare. It also means luring the big private donations, endowments, research grants and revenue streams that make the university less reliant on tuition and student fees.

“I only see NSU’s footprint getting bigger and bigger and having more impact in Broward County and in Florida,” said Dr. Kayvan Amini, a cardiologist and president of the Broward County Medical Association . “But cost control is critical to ensure that with interest rates, these students are not coming out with unbelievable amount of loans, which will cripple their progress in life.”

♦ Reducing student debt : A year’s tuition for its medical school ranges from $67,000 to $72,000. With tuition among the highest in the state, NSU plans to invest in accelerated degree pathways to ease student loan burdens. For example, by accepting undergraduates with high GPAs and many advanced courses, students could lessen their undergraduate requirements and enter medical school sooner. “They could actually get out of undergrad and med school in five years, which is a huge cost savings,” said Charles Palmer, chairman of NSU’s Board of Trustees. Another path could be a combined medical school and residency program that would eliminate a year of medical school. “No one else is doing that, and that’s going to be one of our key pillars,” Palmer said.

♦ Expanding research capacity : NSU’s board of trustees has charged Moon with elevating the university’s research profile. Already, the Center for Collaborative Research serves as a hub for more than 250 ongoing research projects. Future plans include new research partnerships with hospitals and biotech firms and increased faculty recruitment . In February, NSU earned the Carnegie Foundation’s designation as a top-tier, R1 research institution for very high research activity.

♦ Enhancing patient services : The university will increase its community presence through a growing network of NSU Health clinics, allowing for more student training with hands-on patient care. “For this university to exist just on its tuition base is not sustainable over the long term,” Moon said. “Where can we make a change is moving into clinical programs — actually caring for patients.”

♦ Tech-driven curriculum and new degree options: NSU is also updating its medical education model to better incorporate artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and personalized medicine — skills that will define tomorrow’s health care. It also offers new degrees to meet future job demands, such as Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and Anesthesia Assistant — both positions have high earning potential .

A university in motion

Already, signs of transformation are visible. Plans for new clinic sites and degree programs are under development. Faculty recruitment is ramping up. And an ALS center has opened on NSU’s main campus with a $20 million private donation to do research and provide care for people suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

In a bold move, the university hired its first medical director, Dr. Chad Perlyn, former senior vice president of surgical services, community health, and corporate responsibility at Nicklaus Children’s Health System in Miami. Perlyn will take on a pivotal role overseeing and expanding upon the network of 70 clinics known as NSU Health.

“I don’t think that most people have a sense of the size and scope of NSU Health,” Perlyn said.

Perlyn plans to partner with other health providers and open new clinics throughout the state. “Having the right facilities with the right partners will allow us to ultimately drive our mission forward,” he said.

More patients, however, also mean more opportunities to conduct clinical trials. “The idea is to ultimately develop new cures and innovations in partnership with industry,” Perlyn said.

Regarding patient care, a key component in the university’s plan is constructing a $100 million outpatient medical facility/surgery center on NSU’s main campus. The plan calls for the center to incorporate X-ray machines and ultrasound capabilities. Medical professionals will treat cancer patients with infusion and chemotherapy bays, along with radiation machines. Doctors would offer specialty care and outpatient surgery. The building would also house medical offices.

Palmer, chair of NSU Board of Trustees, said the university has the money to get started: “ We did a bond issue last year, so that gave us about $150 million of capital that we could use for some of those purposes but we’re obviously still going to do a big fundraiser.”

He believes investment in new construction will pay off. “Right now we have clinics, but we have none of the equipment that really generates the revenue for the medical end of the business,” Palmer said. “All we have are the doctors, so our goal is to work with other hospital institutions to create a separate NSU health division in which doctors can recommend patients to our new facility that will have all the ancillary things we need to generate additional revenue.”

NSU also plans to build a $100 million state-of-the-art simulation lab on its Davie campus . Healthcare and medical simulation centers are now vital supports of modern medical education, allowing trainees to gain hands-on experience in a risk-free environment. Most Florida universities already have one.

Moon says NSU’s simulation center “will rival any in the country with augmented reality and virtual reality.”

Nurses play a role in NSU’s future, too

Stefanie La Manna , dean of NSU’s College of Nursing, said her college will play a big role in NSU’s future and benefit from the new construction and Moon’s vision. The nursing college just graduated one of its largest groups of nurses and most will remain in Florida, she said. Out of 310 nurse graduates, only four took residency positions out of state, she said.

As the university creates more hands-on learning opportunities, nurses will participate: They will train at the new simulation center, the new clinics, the planned on-campus medical center. “We will be involved with patient care, and whatever grants are secured for research, our students will be a part of it,” La Manna said.

“One thing is certain in Florida: We are always going to have sick people, and we are always going to need to meet the demands,” she said.

A decade ago, NSU sold land on its Davie campus on South University Drive to HCA Healthcare to build a teaching hospital to give the university’s students learning opportunities. The hospital has opened, but it is not a teaching facility. NSU students do clinical rotations at HCA Florida University Hospital just like anywhere else, but HCA, a for-profit entity, doesn’t have an educational and research focus with faculty and students interacting.

“We could not get to a position beneficial for both organizations,” Moon said.

That puts NSU at a disadvantage. Florida’s top medical schools like the University of Florida, the University of Miami and the University of South Florida have strong affiliations with teaching hospitals, giving students access to a larger team of healthcare professionals from whom to learn.

The challenges ahead

Florida’s medical schools—including Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami, University of Florida, Florida State University, and others— are constantly competing to attract the most promising students and faculty. Public schools with lower tuition have an edge, but private schools like NSU aim to stand out with smaller class sizes and niche programs. In 2024, NSU graduated close to 2,600 students with graduate health majors.

If NSU is going to compete at a higher level, though, it must overcome the challenges facing all medical schools.

To graduate, nursing and medical students must do clinical rotations with health providers, getting experience outside the classroom with hands-on learning. Competition for clinical rotations at hospitals, clinics, and other patient-care facilities is intensifying, and as more medical schools open in Florida, the strain on training resources only grows.

Perlyn said he’s trying to find new opportunities: “We need more of the right partners in our community to train our future doctors.”

Amini, who also chairs Florida’s Graduate Medical Education Committee, said the competition is stiff for clinical rotation spots, and creativity will become critical. He plans to reach out to health providers to encourage them to mentor students and prepare them to become physicians.

“There is a little bit of a crisis within our state since we’re getting a heavy load of medical schools coming on board, but not enough clinical sites to train in,” he said.

Amini said Florida also lacks Graduate Medical Education spots known as residencies. When medical students graduate, they need to do a residency before practicing independently. Prospective medical students look at how many and where graduates match for their residencies when choosing a school.

Amini serves on a statewide committee to identify and fund more Graduate Medical Education spots within the state. Research shows people who graduate from medical schools and complete their residencies in Florida are more likely to stay and practice medicine in the state.

Moon said NSU will work to make its students as attractive as possible for residency positions. “This is a great pipeline to keep the best and brightest physicians in Florida,” he said. The more of those folks who stay and provide care in Florida, the better return on investment we will have.”

Dr. Eneida Roldan , executive dean of the College of Health Professions & Medical Sciences at Barry University in Miami, said private universities like hers and NSU will have to compete by finding specializations that public universities overlook. For example, Barry University is one of only 11 schools in the country that offers podiatry.

Along with specialization, she believes collaboration and partnerships will become more important for universities. Florida Atlantic University’s medical school recently announced it will partner with the Broward Health hospital system . Nicklaus Children’s Hospital has become the official pediatric teaching hospital of Florida International University’s medical school.

“I call it collaborative competition,” Roldan said. “I think that’s a mindset that those who lead medical schools should be really focused on.”

Palmer said he’s confident that with new leadership and a vision for the future, NSU will become a top research university with even more healthcare degrees. “Five years from now, I think we’ll be very, very high on the scale of universities in the United States as a research university as well as one that’s broadened the health care portfolio of this university.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at [email protected].

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