Mary Klotman, M.D. -- a nationally renowned physician-scientist and academic leader who has served as chair of Duke’s Department of Medicine for almost seven years -- has been named Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University. Klotman will assume these roles July 1, 2017.
Klotman’s appointment follows a six-month national search that was launched when Nancy Andrews, M.D., Ph.D., announced she planned to step down as dean. Andrews was the first female dean of a nationally acclaimed medical school, and leaves after a decade in the post on June 30, 2017.
“Mary Klotman is a visionary leader, deft executive administrator, and congenital collaborator with an unwavering commitment to excellence,” said A. Eugene Washington, M.D., chancellor of Health Affairs at Duke University and president and CEO of Duke University Health System, in announcing Klotman’s appointment. “She has amply demonstrated her exceptional ability to engage diverse groups to successfully advance all the missions of our academic health system. I am confident Mary will continue to excel in capitalizing on the enormous talent and promise of our people in Duke Health to improve health worldwide.”
Klotman has been a national leader in science and academic medicine through her roles in the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, where she is president of the Association of Professors of Medicine, and on the Council for the Association of American Physicians. She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
“The next leader of the Duke University School of Medicine needs to have keen instincts about how to best support clinical and basic research while adapting nimbly and creatively to a changing health landscape,” said Duke University President Richard Brodhead. “In Mary Klotman, Duke has found a dean with all the tools to do this job brilliantly. She has impressed colleagues across the university with her strength of purpose, clarity, judgment, and love of Duke. Duke Health can look forward to a great new chapter with Mary in this new role leading the School of Medicine.”
Throughout her career, Klotman has served on numerous NIH study sections that have informed the direction of research in HIV. Her research over the past three decades has resulted in new insights in HIV, with specific emphasis on the pathogenesis and impact of the virus on the kidneys.
As the chair of medicine at Duke, Klotman has overseen a period of growth and national acclaim, while also contributing to the broader Duke Health enterprise. Under her leadership, the Duke Department of Medicine now ranks No. 3 in the nation in NIH research funding. The department has also consistently recruited a diverse and talented faculty. Klotman graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a degree in zoology. She then earned her medical degree and completed residency and fellowship training in infectious diseases at Duke, as well.
Prior to returning to Duke as department chair, Klotman served as the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai for 13 years. In addition, she was the co-director of Mount Sinai’s Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, a program designed to translate basic science discoveries into clinical therapeutics for newly emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Klotman previously was a member of the Public Health Service and worked in the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology under the direction of Dr. Robert Gallo.
“I am tremendously honored and humbled to have been selected as the next dean of what I know to be among the finest medical schools in the country,” Klotman said. “Duke’s greatest strength is its people. I look forward to working collaboratively with colleagues within Duke Health and across Duke University to further advance this institution that has so profoundly influenced me.”