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Gerard Clancy was the 19th president of the University of Tulsa, serving in this capacity from November, 2016, until January, 2020. He joined the College of Health Sciences TU faculty in 2014 and was soon elevated to Dean, where he served for two years. He was elevated to President after the departure of Geoffrey Orsak.<ref name="

Background
Clancy, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, appointed as medical director, says that some of his early childhood memories include accompanying his father, who was a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa (UI) Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, while his son played on the floor with matchbox cars. had graduated in 1983 from the UI with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a medical degree. Initially, his goal was to become a medical doctor, with a focus on cardiac research. However, as a medical student assigned to care for patients in a psychiatric facility, his interest changed to mental illness. He then continued to study at UI, until he completed his residency in psychiatry and psychiatry chief residency training in 1988.

Military service
After college, Clancy joined the U. S. Air Force and served on active duty for six years as a flight surgeon. Appointed medical director for an Air Force base in South Dakota, he concurrently served the base as a public health official. His work required inspecting restaurants and solving mosquito control issues. This work exposed him to the kinds of health related issues that existed in the larger community and diverted him from his intention to pursue a career in the military. In 1995, he left the Air Force, and rejoined his family in civilian life, becoming an assistant professor as a psychiatrist in an internal medicine ward at UI. At a meeting with the director of a homeless shelter, he learned about the effects of mental illness on homeless people. Though the shelter was less than a mile from his hospital, more than two-thirds of the people sheltered there were seriously impaired by mental illness and had no access to proper medical treatment. Clancy conceived of an organization named PACT ((Program of Assertive Community Treatment), whereby "... a team of psychiatrists, nurses, rehabilitation therapists and social workers delivered medications, life skills and other services to the people who needed them. PACT was so successful that people who formerly needed to be hospitalized 60 days a year did not need hospitalization at all, eventually saving the system $14,000 per person each year." Clancy became became assistant dean for student affairs and curriculum at UI. The Clancy family were happy with their life at UI until a former residency colleague who had joined OU-Tulsa as chair of psychiatry and urged Clancy to visit the school.

OU College of Medicine
Clancy was sold on his trip, which closed with a short visit with OU president David Boren. Clancy and his family moved to Oklahoma in 2001, where he had accepted the position as dean of the Oklahoma University College of Medicine at Tulsa (OU-Tulsa), sharing the same start date as then president OU-Tulsa, Ken Levit. Clancy said that the move was motivated by his desire to help a medical school grow. For the next eight years he oversaw a restructuring program that cost $327 million for new facilities, academic degree programs, endowed faculty chairs and student scholarships. The work established educational and research partnerships with more than 100 community agencies and a community health network that includes after-hours free clinics for the underserved, pediatric school-based clinics in disadvantaged areas, mobile psychiatric teams, and the OU Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Clinic. The result was to establish a joint venture of OU and TU known as the School of Community Medicine.

Dr. Clancy was appointed the 20th president of Tulsa University, effective November, 2016.

Clancy had barely settled into his new position when President Boren called to ask whether he would also be able and willing to take on the presidency of OU-Tulsa. The previous president, Ken Levit, had resigned to become president of the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2006. Clancy accepted the offer.

Resignation from TU
On January 30, 2020, TU announced that Dr. Clancy had resigned as president because of unexplained health concerns, described only as a "... recent and unexpected medical episode." He reportedly went on medical leave January 20, 2020 The school added that it had appointed Provost Janet Levit as Interim President until Clancy could return to his former role as president.