Dean's Weekly Message
April 28, 2025
Dear Colleague:
I am pleased to announce today that we are strengthening the executive leadership team of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Five senior leaders have been appointed to enhanced leadership roles within the CU School of Medicine:
- Vineet Chopra, MBBS, MD, MSc, Chair of the Department of Medicine, will become the interim Executive Vice Dean overseeing clinical affairs, quality, and research operations. He will continue serving as Chair of Medicine.
- Shanta Zimmer, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Education, has been promoted to Executive Vice Dean with responsibility over education, recognizing her expanded scope of work leading the school’s educational enterprise.
- Naresh Mandava, MD, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, has been named interim Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Advancement to build on his successful fundraising efforts for the CU School of Medicine. He will continue serving as Chair of Ophthalmology.
- Leslie Berg, PhD, Chair of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, will serve as interim Senior Associate Dean for Biomedical Research. The focus of this role will be to enhance the CU School of Medicine’s overall ability to conduct outstanding basic and translational research. She will continue as Chair of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology.
- Adit Ginde, MD, Professor and Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine, will serve as interim Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research and as interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Clinical Trials in the campus Office of Vice Chancellor for Research. His role will focus on improving the clinical trials processes within the CU School of Medicine and UCHealth and across campus with other hospital partners and schools and colleges.
We are fortunate to have exceptionally talented leaders on our faculty who are stepping up as the next generation of leaders on our campus. I am confident they will help us to align priorities, identify opportunities for growth, and maximize the ability of our programs to improve lives across our community. An article in our school newsroom provides additional details.
Please join me in welcoming them to their expanded roles on our school leadership team.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Anne Fuhlbrigge, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, Peter Buttrick, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Research Affairs, and Thomas Campbell, MD, Associate Dean for Clinical Research, for their longtime service in leadership roles benefiting our school and campus community. They have been dedicated to our common goal of providing outstanding care and high-quality research for the benefit of our community.
Congratulations, Dr. Jevtovic-Todorovic
Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, MD, PhD, MBA, Chair of Anesthesiology, has announced that she will step down April 30 as chair of the department she has led for nearly 10 years. Under her leadership, the department has grown two-fold in faculty and three-fold in revenue. The department also has been a leader in NIH funding among anesthesia departments, including an inaugural T32 grant that is awarded to the top 15 departments of anesthesia in the country. The department is proud of its vast clinical contributions that include over 100,000 anesthetics being administered annually. During her tenure, the department built a solid endowment base with three newly established endowments. She also led a substantial increase in the size of several training programs, including several novel fellowships. Dr. Jevtovic-Todorovic plans to focus on her research programs and clinical duties by remaining on faculty as a tenured full professor. While a national search for her successor is conducted, Christopher Lace, MD, MBA, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, will serve as interim chair. Congratulations to Dr. Jevtovic-Todorovic on a fantastic and prolific tenure as chair!
Faculty Updates
Vik Bebarta, MD, interim Chair of Emergency Medicine and founding director of the Center for Combat and Battlefield (COMBAT) Research, has been named recipient of the Excellence in Research Award by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. The award ceremony will be held at the society’s annual meeting in Philadelphia in mid-May.
Emily Bucholz, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, has been selected to join the National Academy of Medicine’s Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholars program for the next three years. Each year, the academy chooses up to 10 outstanding scholars nationally to participate in activities under its guidance, focusing on issues that are currently influencing the future of health and medicine.
Rashaan Ford, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, is featured on the cover of the American Board of Pediatrics 2024 annual report. He directs the Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship. Actively involved in the American Board of Pediatrics’ Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Champions program, Dr. Ford has integrated CBME principles into his fellowship and participated in the board’s entrustable professional activities mapping project.
Gates Grubstake Fund
Gates Institute recently announced $1.5 million in awards to five projects from the Gates Grubstake Fund, which provides translational research funding for projects and teams affiliated with the Institute. The annual awards are administered in collaboration with CU Innovations. The 2024 awardees and their projects are:
- Ram Nagaraj, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology, “Gene Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy”
- Mike Verneris, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, and Traci Lyons, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, “Sema7a-Targeted CAR T Cells for Women’s Cancer”
- Zhirui Wang, PhD, Professor of Surgery, “CCR4 Immunotoxin for Breast Cancer Immunotherapy via Treg Depletion”
- Christian Young, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, “First-in-Class Topical Biologic for Atopic Dermatitis”
- Yuwen Zhu, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, “Humanized GPR182-Blocking Antibody for Immunotherapy”
Daniel M. Lindberg, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine and member of the Kempe Center for the Prevention & Treatment of Child Abuse & Neglect, is corresponding author of an editorial, “Potential Pitfalls in Bayesian Analysis for Child Abuse,” published April 21 by JAMA.
Timothy A. McKinsey, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation, and Gregory P. Way, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, are corresponding authors of an article, “Cell Painting and Machine Learning Distinguish Fibroblasts From Nonfailing and Failing Human Hearts,” published April 21 by Circulation. Additional details are available in this article in the School of Medicine newsroom.
Ross M. Kedl, PhD, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, and Jared Klarquist, PhD, Assistant Research Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, are corresponding authors of an in-press preview, “B cells shape naïve CD8 T cell programming,” published April 17 by The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Fifteen co-authors are from our school.
In Memoriam
Condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Mary Arthur, who in 1970 graduated from the second class of the Child Health Associate Program (CHAP) of the School of Medicine. As a dedicated child health associate, she worked for many years in the pediatric practice of James H. Arthur, MD, who became her husband in 1985, and Gordon J. Blakeman, MD. She subsequently served as the Associate Director of CHAP at the CU School of Medicine. In 2003, she became the first physician assistant elected to receive the Career Teaching Scholar Award in the Department of Pediatrics.
Have a good week,
John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, University of Colorado School of Medicine
The Dean’s weekly message is an email news bulletin from John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, Dean of the CU School of Medicine, that is distributed to inform
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