The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has selected the search committee charged with reviewing candidates for the next permanent senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the UAB School of Medicine.
“Our goal with this search is to find the best person to lead the School of Medicine,” said Ray L. Watts, who became UAB’s seventh president in February.
Watts served as senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the School of Medicine for two and a half years. Anupam Agarwal, M.D., is serving in those roles on an interim basis and will not be a candidate for the permanent position.
“This is a very exciting time to be a leader at UAB and a leader in the field of academic medicine,” Watts said. “Our next senior vice president and dean will have the opportunity to shape medical education and biomedical research – not just on our campus, but around the world. The UAB School of Medicine will also be vital to fueling a knowledge-based economy for Birmingham and Alabama.
“We anticipate attracting a very talented pool of applicants from across the country,” Watts said.
Watts has charged the search committee with an aggressive timeline for selecting a finalist. “We want to conclude our search in six to nine months,” he said..
The senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the School of Medicine reports to the president of UAB and serves on a three-member “joint operational leadership” team for UAB Medicine, the brand for all clinical medical operations at UAB, with the Chief Executive Officer of the UAB Health System, Will Ferniany, Ph.D., and the president of the Health Services Foundation, who currently is James Bonner, M.D., the chair of Radiation Oncology.
The School of Medicine has more than 1,100 faculty members, 3,000 staff employees, 879 medical students and 814 medical residents. It has three regional campuses – in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville and Montgomery – where students spend their third and fourth years. UAB attracts more than $400 million annually in external research funding and ranks consistently in the top 25 nationally in funding from the National Institutes of Health, with more than $217 million going to the School of Medicine.
The search committee is made up of faculty and administrators from across UAB, a student representative and a member of the Birmingham community. It will be co-chaired by Sergio Stagno, M.D., the Katharine Reynolds Ireland Chair of Pediatrics and a former president of the Health Services Foundation, and David Sweatt, Ph.D., chair of the department of Neurobiology, the director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute and the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging.
Other members of the search committee are:
- Donna Arnett, Ph.D., MSHP, professor and chair, department of Epidemiology, UAB School of Public Health; President of the American Heart Association
- Etty (Tika) Benveniste, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology; Alma B. Maxwell - UAHSF Endowed Chair in Biomedical Research, UAB School of Medicine
- Kirby Bland, M.D., professor and chair of the department of Surgery; Fay Fletcher Kerner Chair of Surgery, UAB School of Medicine
- Jim Bonner, M.D., Merle M. Salter Chair of Radiation Oncology; president of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation
- Art Boudreaux, M.D., professor and vice chair of the department of Anesthesiology, UAB School of Medicine; Chief of Staff of University Hospital
- Dawn Bulgarella, MSHA, senior associate dean for Finance and Administration, UAB School of Medicine
- Cheri Canon, M.D., professor and chair of the department of Radiology; Witten-Stanley Endowed Chair, UAB School of Medicine
- William Curry, M.D., professor of General Internal Medicine; associate dean for Primary Care and Rural Health, UAB School of Medicine; senior vice president for Population Health, UAB Health System
- Hughes Evans, M.D., Ph.D., senior associate dean for Education, chair of the department of Medical Education, UAB School of Medicine
- Will Ferniany, Ph.D., CEO, UAB Health System
- Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, director of the division of Preventive Medicine, director of the Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center, UAB School of Medicine
- Doreen Harper, Ph.D., MSN, professor and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair for the Dean of the UAB School of Nursing
- Eric Jack, Ph.D., interim dean, UAB School of Business
- Alesia Jones, chief human resources officer, UAB
- Keith "Tony" Jones, M.D., professor and chair of the department of Anesthesiology; Alfred Habeeb Chair in Anesthesiology, UAB School of Medicine
- Shirley Salloway Kahn, Ph.D., vice president of Development, Alumni and External Relations, UAB
- Robert Kimberly, M.D., senior associate dean for Research; director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science; Howard L. Holley Research Chair in Rheumatology, UAB School of Medicine
- Seth Landefeld, M.D., professor and chair of the department of Medicine; Spencer Chair in Medical Science Leadership, UAB School of Medicine
- Norman McGowin, M.D., general surgeon, Greenville, Ala.; president, University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association
- Lori McMahon, Ph.D., member of the UAB Faculty Council; professor in the department of Cell, Developmental, & Integrative Biology; director of the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center, UAB School of Medicine
- Bryan Noe, Ph.D., dean, UAB Graduate School
- Mr. Charles Perry, community representative
- Michael Reddy, DMD, DMSc, dean, UAB School of Dentistry
- Ms. Brittany Richardson, third-year medical student, UAB School of Medicine