KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- The senior associate dean for clinical affairs will take over in February as executive vice chancellor of the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Officials said Wednesday that Dr. Douglas Girod was selected from among three candidates to fill the position. He replaces Barbara Atkinson, who retired in June as dean of the medical school and executive vice chancellor of the medical center in Kansas City, Kan.

Girod, a surgeon, joined the medical faculty in 1994. He is also chairman of the medical school's Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.

Girod earned his medical degree in 1985 from the University of California at San Francisco. He completed two residencies and a National Institutes of Health research fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle.