Dean's Weekly Message
August 26, 2019
Dear colleague:
The University honored Joyce M. and Richard N. Brown and the Richard N. Brown Family Foundation with an event at the Denver Country Club on Thursday, August 22. We announced earlier this year that the Browns have committed $2 million to create the Joyce M. Brown Chair for Developmental Therapeutics in Women’s Cancers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. After Joyce was diagnosed with an advanced form of gynecological cancer in 2014, she became a patient at the CU Cancer Center. Once here, the Browns met Jennifer Diamond, MD, associate professor of medicine, who co-founded the Women’s Cancer Developmental Therapeutics Program and who now has been appointed the inaugural recipient of the chair. With their gift, the Browns are part of a virtuous cycle: Excellent care led to their generous support, which will lead to excellent care for others. We thank them for their gift and Jennifer for serving as a model for others on our faculty.
CU Mini Med School: The Clinical Years is back again this year with a new roster of School of Medicine educators offering classes on timely topics. This year’s program includes classes on vaccines, opioids and addiction, firearms and suicide, and other subjects of public interest. These presentations are made on Wednesday evenings in the fall, beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Each class runs from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and is streamed online to locations across the state. Registration is required so that updates and information can be shared with participants. The CU Mini Med School is an excellent community service that the School provides at no charge to those who want to attend. If you have family and friends who would benefit from these classes or would simply like to get a sense of a day in the life of a doctor (two of the classes are led by physicians who offer a view of their day), please encourage them to sign up. Members of the Anschutz Medical Campus community are invited as well. Special thanks to the team who put together this year’s program: Dennis Boyle, MD, professor of medicine; Kristin Furfari, MD, associate professor of medicine; Todd Guth, MD, MHPE, associate professor of emergency medicine; and Helen MacFarlane, director of educational technology and assistant professor of family medicine.
Michael T. Kilmer, medical director of the VA Western Colorado Health Care System, has been named director of the VA Eastern Colorado Health System, VA officials announced last Friday. His appointment begins September 15. He succeeds Sallie Houser-Hanfelder, who left the position earlier this year after overseeing the completion of the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, which is adjacent to the Anschutz Medical Campus. Since Sallie’s departure, Duane B. Gill has served as the system’s interim director. Michael previously served in other positions with Veterans Health Administration: chief consultant, care management and social work; interim director, Central Texas Health Care System; interim director, Amarillo VA Health Care System; and program director, patient centered care and care management, VA Desert Pacific Health Care System. He has 15 years of military service. He earned his BA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences from University of Washington, Tacoma, and Master of Social Work from University of Washington, Seattle.
There will be no message next Monday, September 2, due to the Labor Day holiday.
Have a good week,
John J. Reilly, Jr., MD
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, School of Medicine
The Dean’s weekly message is an email news bulletin from John J. Reilly, Jr., MD, Dean of the CU School of Medicine, that is distributed to inform University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty members, staff, students and others about issues pertaining to the School’s mission of education, research, clinical care and community service. For clinical news and patient stories from UCHealth, please visit UCHealth Today
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