Selwyn M. Vickers | |
---|---|
Born | Demopolis, Alabama, USA |
Spouse | Janice (m. 1988) |
Academic background | |
Education | BA, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
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 is the President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,starting in September 2022. Previously,he 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]
Following high school,Vickers attended Johns Hopkins University for his baccalaureate and medical degree. As a medical student,Vickers was selected as a 1985 Commonwealth Fund Medical Fellow to support his research in intestinal physiology. [3] He remained at Johns Hopkins for his surgical training and he met John L. Cameron and Levi Watkins. [4]
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. [5] Upon returning to North America,Vickers served as an instructor of surgery at Johns Hopkins for one year [5] before joining 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. [6] 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. [7]
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). [7] 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. [8] 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. [9] As a result of his research efforts,Vickers was recognized as one of America's Leading Black Doctors [10] and inducted into the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine). [11]
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. [5] 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. [12] Vickers was later recognized with an election to the Association of American Physicians [13] and was named as the 2019 Dr. James T. Black Award recipient by the 100 Black Men of America,Inc. [12]
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. [14] 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. [15] 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. [16]
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. [17] He was also inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor for being an influential individual native to Alabama. [18] In 2022,Vickers assumed the role of CEO of both the UAB Health System and the UAB/Ascension St. Vincent's Alliance. [19]
He was selected as the CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in June 2022 and began the role in September 2022. [20] [21]
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 in the University of Alabama System,UAB has grown to be the state's largest single employer,with more than 24,200 faculty and staff and over 53,000 jobs at the university and in the health system. 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.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Its main campus is located at 1275 York Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets in Manhattan.
UAB Hospital is a 1,207 bed tertiary hospital and academic health science center located in Birmingham,Alabama. It serves as the only ACS verified Level I Trauma Center in Alabama,and is the flagship property of the UAB Health System which is owned by the University of Alabama System. The system includes clinics,an eye hospital and affiliations with other health care facilities throughout the state. It is Birmingham's largest employer,with a staff of over 20,000.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine is a public medical school located in Birmingham,Alabama,United States with branch campuses in Huntsville,Montgomery,and at the University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences in Tuscaloosa. Residency programs are also located in Selma,Huntsville and Montgomery. It is part of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Gregory E. Pence is an American philosopher.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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Smita Bhatia is an Indian-born American oncologist. She is the Director of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine,as well as the Vice Chair for Outcomes in the Department of Pediatrics and Senior Advisor for Cancer Outcomes Research at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB.
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