Duke Names New Health System Chancellor

Dr. A. Eugene Washington has been selected as the next Chancellor for Health Affairs after a nine-month search to fill the position.

Washington has been the dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and vice chancellor of health sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles since February 2010. He is also a widely published researcher, a noted health policy scholar, a professor of gynecology. Washington will replace Dr. Victor Dzau, who stepped down as Chancellor in June to head the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.

“I feel honored and privileged to assume this key leadership role, and I look forward to working with my new colleagues to realize our full potential,” Washington said in a statement to Duke News. “Duke is uniquely positioned among the very top health sciences institutions to take advantage of the opportunities available.”

Washington was selected by a search committee established in April to replace Dzau. The search looked at candidates from across the nation and around the world. His appointment was then approved by President Richard Brodhead, the Board of Trustees, and the Health System Board of Directors.

Richard Wagoner, who chaired the search committee, said that Washington would help Duke Medicine to advance its clinical, education and research efforts.

“With his deep clinical and research experience, commitment, education and demonstrated success as the head of a top-tier academic medical center, Gene Washington will lead Duke to a new level of excellence and service,” Wagoner said in a statement.

During his time at UCLA, Washington has received several awards, including most recently the David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for his “major contributions to improving the health and health care of the American people”.

Before joining UCLA, Washington was the executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California at San Francisco. He graduated from the UCSF School of Medicine in 1976.