Anthony Viera, MD, MPH, has been named the new chair of the Department of Community and Family Medicine, effective October 1, 2017. Dr. Viera is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He also holds appointments as adjunct professor in the Department of Epidemiology and in the Public Health Leadership Program at UNC.
This decision was made after a national search, and I want to thank members of the search committee, led by Allan Kirk, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery, for all of their efforts.
In addition to maintaining an active family medicine clinical practice, Dr. Viera is a nationally-recognized researcher focused on cardiovascular disease prevention with a special interest in hypertension, nutrition and physical activity. He has published nearly 200 articles, book chapters, monographs and books. Dr. Viera is a fellow of the American Heart Association and has been the principal investigator on numerous grants from the NIH and other funding agencies. Dr. Viera also plays an active role in the education of medical students, residents, and fellows. At UNC, he has been Director of the UNC MD-MPH Program (Health Care & Prevention) since 2012, and throughout his career has received numerous teaching and research awards. Dr. Viera received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina. He completed his residency training in family medicine at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where he served as chief resident. He served in the United States Navy from 1996 to 2004 before joining UNC as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Viera received his Master of Public Health degree from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.