Newswise — HOUSTON – (Sept. 29, 2015) – Barbara J. Stoll, M.D., an internationally known physician, researcher and educator, has been named dean of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School.
The appointment is effective Oct. 1.
Stoll has been the George W. Brumley, Jr., Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. She has also served as president and CEO of the Emory-Children’s Center and director of the Pediatric Center of Georgia, a joint venture between Emory and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
“I feel confident that Dr. Stoll is the ideal person to lead this school to new heights as it continues to grow and prosper with outstanding students, faculty and staff,” said Giuseppe Colasurdo, M.D., UTHealth president and the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Chair. Stoll succeeds Colasurdo, who has served as dean of the UTHealth Medical School since 2007.
Stoll has authored more than 290 papers and has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1991. She has studied the causes of morbidity and mortality among preterm and low birthweight infants in developing countries, including scientific field work in Bangladesh and a year’s sabbatical at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
“I was drawn to UTHealth by the warmth, enthusiasm and visionary leadership of President Colasurdo, by the collegiality of the deans and chairs, and by hospital leaders who are committed to both clinical care and the academic mission,” Stoll said. “Given the size of the medical school, its excellent students, faculty and programs, together with strong and engaged health care partners, the possibilities are extraordinary.”
UTHealth Medical School’s teaching hospitals include Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, Harris Health’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital and The University of Texas Harris County Psychiatric Center.
“I am impressed by the people I met at UTHealth,” Stoll said. “They are smart, engaged, enthusiastic about the institution, and committed to the missions of education, clinical care, research and advocacy.”
Stoll said strengths of UTHealth Medical School include signature clinical and research programs in neurosciences, trauma, cardiovascular diseases, mental health, transplant medicine, basic science and maternal and child health.
“The size and diversity of the student body and the experienced leadership of the educational programs are great strengths,” she said. “I am proud to be joining a school that graduates such a diverse group of young physicians.”
She said she looks forward to collaborating with the deans of UTHealth’s five other schools: nursing, public health, dentistry, biomedical informatics and biomedical sciences.
“We have the opportunity to develop and evaluate new models of care and health care delivery to realize the promise of improved population health, to be a national model of a true learning health care system and to make a measurable impact on the health of Houston,” she said. “I love building academic programs and recruiting and nurturing outstanding faculty. I hope to help chairs, division chiefs, research leadership and individual investigators expand the research portfolio and the scientific impact of work done at UTHealth.”
Developing philanthropic support for faculty and programs will be important. “I have come to understand the power of philanthropy and am committed to working hard to build a strong endowment to support our basic and clinical departments and to ensure the long-term future of the medical school,” she said.
Stoll received her medical degree from Yale Medical School, graduating Cum Laude. Additional training included a pediatric internship and residency at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, and a neonatology fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College.
She has held a joint appointment as professor of public health/epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. Stoll was the first Emory chair of pediatrics to be jointly employed by and hold a senior leadership role at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, one of the largest pediatric health care systems in the country.
She has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), CARE, Save the Children, United States Agency for International Development, March of Dimes and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stoll is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the AAP Section on Perinatal Pediatrics. She was elected to the Society for Pediatric Research, the Infectious Disease Society of America and the American Pediatric Society. She is a member of the executive board of the Atlanta-based WHO Collaborating Center in Maternal and Child Health; a member of the Executive and Program Committees of the Association of Pediatric Department Chairs; a member of the Steering Committee of the Pediatric Scientist Development Program; and a member of the Steering Committees of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network and the NICHD Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2009 and has served as president of the American Pediatric Society, the oldest academic society in American pediatrics.
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