According to the University salary book, which can be found at sunshine.unm.edu, each of the top 10 highest-paid employees at UNM are associated with the medical field in one way or another, from chairs of medical-based departments to professors to deans. Their average salary is $481,552.
The top earner is Paul Roth, chancellor of UNM’s Health Sciences Center, CEO of the UNM Health System and dean of the school of medicine. Roth makes $650,000 a year, and is one of only two at UNM who make more than half a million.
According to the UNM School of Medicine’s website, Roth is nationally recognized as “a leader in emergency medicine, as an innovator in medical education and as the head of one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers.” In addition, he “founded UNM’s Center for Disaster Medicine and created the nation’s first civilian Disaster Medical Assistance Team.”
Three of the top six earners are department chairs, who usually work closely with the dean in leading the department.
Howard Yonas, the sixth-highest paid UNM employee and chair of the department of neurosurgery, which deals primarily with brain and spinal cord surgery, brought more than 30 years of experience to UNM. Over the last 10 years he has engineered its modern neurosurgery department from the ground up.
“I have built the department from a total of three people, including myself, to over 50 doctors, nurses and scientists,” Yonas said. “Our group is the only provider of advanced neurosurgical care for the state of New Mexico.”
Yonas said that while University neurosurgeons are among the elite when it comes to pay grade on campus, they could be making much more in other circumstances.
“UNM neurosurgeons are paid at near the 50th percentile of neurosurgeons at universities and significantly less than they could earn in private practice,” he said. “I am the only member of my department paid near the 25th percentile of directors of neurosurgical programs in the U.S.”
Only 15 UNM employees make at least $400,000 a year. Surprisingly, UNM President Bob Frank doesn’t quite crack the $400,000 club, making $372,690 annually.
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The top 10 highest salaries this year at UNM
1.Paul Roth — $650,000
Health Sciences Center chancellor,
UNM Health System CEO,
School of Medicine dean
2.John C. Russell — $528, 752
Department of Surgery chair
3.Eve Espey — $481,000
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology chair
4.Andrew Carlson — $480,000
neurosurgery assistant professor
5.Erich Marchand — $474,000
neurosurgery associate professor
6.Howard Yonas — $450,166
Department of Neurosurgery chair
7.James Harrington and
Peter Shin — $450,000
neurosurgery assistant professors
9.Marco Ricci — $438,600
cardiothoracic surgery professor
10.Philip Wiest — $437,750
Department of Radiology chair
David Lynch is a staff reporter at The Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter
@RealDavidLynch.
