KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A surgeon and longtime Navy reservist who has served as the University of Kansas Medical Center's top administrator was promoted Thursday to chief executive of the university system.

The Kansas Board of Regents unanimously named Dr. Douglas Girod as chancellor. He will succeed 72-year-old Bernadette Gray-Little, who announced last September she would retire this summer from the post she has held for eight years. Girod takes the helm on July 1.

Girod, 59, will oversee the university's campuses and their combined 28,000 students and 2,600 faculty members in Lawrence, Kans...