The Heersink School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors is a small group of eminent leaders from business, academia, medicine, science, and public policy, with and without ties to Alabama or UAB, who serve as advocates and advisors on strategy, philanthropic initiatives, and community engagement and by providing independent perspectives on Heersink School of Medicine initiatives.
The Board of Visitors will be officially welcoming three new members this October – Dr. John Gallin, Sara Finley, and Gordon Lee.
John I. Gallin, M.D., MACP
John I. Gallin, M.D., MACP, was appointed to the dual roles of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Associate Director for clinical research and inaugural chief scientific officer of the Clinical Center in August 2016. He was the longest-serving director of the NIH Clinical Center (1994-2017) after serving nine years as scientific director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief of the Laboratory of Host Defenses NIAID. During his tenure as the director of the NIH Clinical Center, Gallin helped to lead the design, construction, and activation of a new NIH Clinical Research Center, which opened to patients in 2005. He also oversaw the establishment of a new curriculum for clinical research training, now offered globally and reaching over 25,000 students annually in 160 countries, as well as the development of new information systems for biomedical translational and clinical research.
In 2011, Gallin accepted, on behalf of the NIH Clinical Center, the Lasker–Bloomberg Public Service Award for its rich history of medical discovery through clinical research. He also oversaw the Clinical Pathophysiology Section in NIAID research laboratory where his primary research interests are rare immune disorders of phagocytes, with a focus on chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). His laboratory discovered and described the genetic basis for several forms of CGD and other disorders of phagocytes and has done pioneering research that has reduced life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections in patients with these disorders. He has published 379 articles in scientific journals and edited two textbooks – Inflammation, Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates (Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, 1999, 3rd edition) and Principles and Practice of Clinical Research (Academic Press now in 4th edition).
Gallin is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians-London. He has received numerous awards, including the American Federation for Clinical Research Young Investigator Award (1984) and the Weill-Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Award of Distinction (2022). In March 2023, he retired from government service and will be pursuing research and educational activities as an NIH special volunteer.
Sara Finley, J.D.
Sara Finley, J.D., formerly served as senior vice president and general counsel of CVS Caremark Corporation (now CVS Health), a Fortune 10 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) company and spent almost 20 years with CVS Caremark and predecessor companies before retiring from the company in 2015. Prior to its 2007 merger with CVS, Finley served as senior vice president, assistant general counsel, and corporate secretary of Caremark Rx, Inc., a Fortune 100 NYSE company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Finley is principal of Threshold Corporate Consulting, L.L.C., and serves on the boards of SonderMind based in Denver, Studio Bank based in Nashville, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center based in Nashville.
Finley has extensive nonprofit board experience, including her present board roles with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, The Center for Nonprofit Management, Leadership Nashville, and the Vanderbilt University Law School Board of Advisors. She resides in Nashville and is a 2017 graduate of Leadership Nashville. Finley received her law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1985 after graduating from the University of Alabama in 1982. She began her career practicing law, first as an associate with Maynard, Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, Alabama, and later as an associate and partner with the national law firm, Kutak Rock LLP, based in Atlanta.
Gordon J. Lee
Gordon J. Lee is president and CEO of Princeton Credit and Princeton Ventures. For nearly three decades, he has provided financing and financial advisory services for a wide array of corporate clients whilst consulting to a variety of international technology startups.
Gordon has served over 25 years on the board of advisors for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, sitting on a variety of subcommittees, including education, audit, and development. For the past 19 years, he’s served on the UCLA Hospital System Finance/Audit, Operations & Strategy Committee that meets monthly with the CEO and C-suite executives to discuss complex challenges facing the enterprise. He also serves on the Health Systems International Advisory Committee which assesses UCLA Health’s global engagement strategy through setting priorities and implementing programs that lead to international prominence for the health system.
Several years ago, Gordon was selected by former University of California (UC) President Janet Napolitano to serve as a founding member of her Fiat Lux Alliance advisory council. Today, the committee advises current UC President Michael Drake on an assortment of initiatives vital to the institution.
In his efforts to bring novel and relevant UC technologies to the market, Gordon assists deans, clinicians, and professors in evaluating the viability of their inventions as a commercialized product. His vast network of relationships with companies like Google, Samsung, Hyundai, and Salesforce has led to joint research, future product development, and strategic investments.
He is a committee member of UC Davis’ Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR) grant program, in which he evaluates embryotic stage proof-of-concept technologies. He is also a judge for the annual UCSF Digital Health Hub Awards.
He is a senior advisor to the CEO and its leadership at Ankura, a global firm advising the world’s largest governments, businesses, and institutions in solving their most challenging and complex problems. His interests extend to advising multiple companies like EduWorks and creating health care startups to solve the gaps to patient and hospital operational care.
Aside from his enjoyably hectic life, you can find him at the gym five days a week in a BodyPump or Spinning exercise class, spending quality time with his two adult sons, or feverishly over the stove with one of his hundreds of cookbooks. He’s a patron of the arts, paddle tennis player, weekend golf hack, health care/AI junkie, foodie, and wine enthusiast.