Selwyn M. Vickers | |
---|---|
Born | Demopolis, Alabama, USA |
Spouse | Janice (m. 1988) |
Academic background | |
Education | Johns Hopkins University (BA) Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (MD) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School |
Selwyn Maurice Vickers is an American gastrointestinal surgical oncologist. He serves as President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Previously,Dr. Vickers was the senior vice president for Medicine and Dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and the CEO of both the UAB Health System and the UAB/Ascension St. Vincent's Alliance.
Vickers was born in Demopolis,Alabama but was raised in Tuscaloosa and Huntsville. [1] His parents were involved in the Civil rights movement and his father fought in the Korean War. Upon returning,his father accepted a faculty position Alabama A&M University which Vickers described as one of the most influential moments of his childhood. His uncle was also the first physician to graduate from Stillman College while his aunt was one of the first Black/African American women to receive a PhD. from Duke University. [2]
For college,Vickers attended Johns Hopkins University,where he received his bachelor's degree in 1982,followed by a medical degree in 1986. [3] As a medical student,Vickers was selected as a 1985 Commonwealth Fund Medical Fellow to support his research in intestinal physiology. [4] He remained at Johns Hopkins for his surgical training and studied with John L. Cameron and Levi Watkins. [5]
Upon completing his surgical training,Vickers completed two summer,post-graduate research fellowships,with the National Institutes of Health and trained at the John Radcliffe Hospital of Oxford University. [6] Upon returning to North America,Vickers served as an instructor of surgery at Johns Hopkins for one year. [6] [3]
He joined the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's (UAB) Department of Surgery as an assistant professor in 1994. [1] Once he joined the faculty,Vickers became a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Fellow and was appointed director of UAB's Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery. [7] During his early tenure at the institution,Vickers was also a principal investigator for the Pancreatic Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant to provide screening and education programs for diabetes and colon cancer for minority communities. [8]
In 2006,Vickers left UAB to become the Jay Phillips Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School (U of M). [8] He brought his SPORE grant to the U of M,which he used to focus on identifying and targeting pathways of pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis and developing an oncolytic adenovirus to attack pancreatic tumor stem cells. [9] Vickers also became the principal investigator on the Enhancing Minority Participation in Clinical Trials (EMPaCT) to create a national consortia of five regional institutions to improve health disparities in America. [10] As a result of his research efforts,Vickers was recognized as one of America's Leading Black Doctors [11] and inducted into the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine). [12]
Vickers returned to UAB in 2013 upon being named the next senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. [6] Once rejoining the faculty,Vickers also led the research collaborative Center for Healthy African American Men through Partnerships,a consortium of academic centers and community organizations that works to develop,implement and evaluate interventions to improve African American men's health through research,outreach,and training. [13] Vickers was later recognized with an election to the Association of American Physicians [14] and was named as the 2019 Dr. James T. Black Award recipient by the 100 Black Men of America,Inc. [13]
During the COVID-19 pandemic,Vickers co-published an article in The American Journal of Medicine addressing the disparities between African American and white populations during the pandemic. [15] He was also co-awarded a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for his collaborative project Advancing Surgical Cancer Care and Equity in the Deep South. [16] In September 2020,Vickers was elected to the board of directors of Alabama Power while also serving as president-elect of the American Surgical Association. [17]
While serving in these various roles both at UAB and off-site,Vickers was elected to serve on the Forma Therapeutics Holdings,Inc. board of directors. [18] He was also inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor for being an influential individual native to Alabama. [19] In 2022,Vickers assumed the role of CEO of both the UAB Health System and the UAB/Ascension St. Vincent's Alliance. [20]
In June 2022,Vickers was selected as the CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,and began the role in September 2022. [21] [22]
Vickers married his wife Janice in 1988 and they have four children together. [1]
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham,Alabama. Founded in 1969 and part of the University of Alabama System,UAB has grown to be the state's largest employer,with more than 24,200 faculty and staff and over 53,000 jobs at the university. The university is classified among "R1:Doctoral Universities –Very high research activity".
Basil Isaac Hirschowitz was an academic gastroenterologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) best known in the field for having invented an improved optical fiber which allowed the creation of a useful flexible endoscope. This invention revolutionized the practice of gastroenterology and also was a key invention in optical fiber communication in multiple industries.
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The University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) located in Birmingham,Alabama,United States with branch campuses in Huntsville,Montgomery,and Tuscaloosa. Residency programs are also located in Selma,Huntsville,and Montgomery. It is part of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the UAB Health System,one of the largest academic medical centers in the United States.
Bruce Richard Korf is a medical geneticist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In April 2009,he began a two-year term as president of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG),a professional organization.
Southern Research is a not-for-profit US 501(c)(3) research organization that conducts basic and applied research for commercial and non-commercial organizations across four divisions:Drug development,Drug discovery,Energy &Environment,and Engineering.
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Martin Adel Makary is a British-American surgeon,professor,author,and medical commentator. He practices surgical oncology and gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,is Mark Ravitch Chair in Gastrointestinal Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,and is the chief of Islet Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins.
Ray Lannom Watts is an American physician-researcher in neurology,educator and university administrator. Watts has served as the seventh president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) since February 2013 and is the longest-serving president in UAB history.
James K. Kirklin is an American cardiac surgeon who has made significant scientific and surgical contributions in the fields of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support devices to assist the pumping action of the heart. He was formerly Professor of Surgery (1987-2022),Director of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2006-2016),Director of the James and John Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes (KIRSO) (2016–2022),and Co-Director of Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center (2011-2017) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at UAB,he held the UAB Cardiovascular Research Chair (1998-2006),the John Kirklin Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery (2006-2017),and the James Kirklin Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2017-2022).
Levi Watkins Jr. was an American heart surgeon and civil rights activist. On February 4,1980,he and Vivien Thomas were the first to successfully implant an automatic defibrillator in a human patient at Johns Hopkins University. This took place only a mere seven months after Watkins completed his surgical education at Johns Hopkins. Today,millions of patients everywhere use this device,which detects irregular heart beats and corrects them.
Ralph H. Hruban is professor of pathology and oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is currently Director of the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins,and Baxley Professor and Director of the Department of Pathology. He is a world expert on pancreatic cancer.
Jeffrey Drebin is a surgeon and scientist. He serves as the Department of Surgery Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Farah D. Lubin is an American neuroscientist and Professor of Neurobiology and Cell,Developmental,and Integrative Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham within the Heersink School of Medicine. Lubin is the Principal Investigator of the Lubin Lab which explores the epigenetic mechanisms underlying cognition and how these mechanisms are altered in disease states such as epilepsy and neurodegeneration. Lubin discovered the role of NF-κB in fear memory reconsolidation and also uncovered a novel role for epigenetic regulation of BDNF during long-term memory formation and in epilepsy leading to memory loss. Lubin is a champion for diversity at UAB as the Director of the Roadmap Scholar Program and as a faculty mentor for several institutional and national programs to increase retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM.
Monica Baskin is an American psychologist who is a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research considers health disparities in the Deep South. She serves as Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Monika M. Safford is an American clinician-investigator. She is the Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and John J. Kuiper Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She was the inaugural Endowed Professor of Diabetes Prevention and Outcomes Research and Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.
Mona N. Fouad is an Egyptian-American physician. Fouad is the inaugural holder of the Edward E. Partridge,M.D.,Endowed Chair for Cancer Disparity Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a result of her "lifetime of exceptional work in health and medicine," Fouad was also elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2017.
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Trygve Tollefsbol is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the department of Biology. Coining the term “epigenetics diet”in 2011,Tollefsbol has been a leader in the field of phytochemical-based epigenetic mechanisms to prevent cancer. In his role as founder and chief editor for Elsevier's Translational Epigenetics,an internationally recognized series,he has directed the publication of almost 50 books on the topic of epigenetics.