New Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Dell Medical School
Dear UT Community,
After a national search, I am delighted to announce that Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti will serve as the next Dean of the Dell Medical School and the Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. She will start December 1, 2022, and hold the Frank and Charmaine Denius Distinguished Dean’s Chair in Medical Leadership.
Dr. Lucchinetti comes to UT from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where she holds the Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Professorship of Neuroscience and serves as Dean of Clinical and Translational Science and Chair of the Department of Neurology.
A world-renowned clinician and researcher with expertise in immunopathology and pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, Dr. Lucchinetti has contributed novel insights underlying the mechanisms of tissue injury in patients with early stages of MS and other central nervous system disorders. She has been awarded significant grant funding from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the United States Department of Defense. She is also a passionate educator — as a course instructor and mentor to residents, fellows and visiting scientists.
She is a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award and the Diversity Champion Award from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. She also received the John Dystel Prize for MS research from the American Academy of Neurology and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society — a lifetime achievement award — for her contributions to patient care and the neuropathology of MS.
Dr. Lucchinetti received a B.S. in biology from Northwestern University before earning an M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago. After an internship at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, she was a neurology resident at Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education. She also completed a fellowship in neuroimmunology at Mayo Clinic, with additional training as a Mayo Foundation scholar in experimental neuropathology at the Brain Research Institute in Vienna, Austria. She joined the Mayo Clinic faculty in 1996.
Dr. Lucchinetti will succeed Dr. George Macones, who has served as interim dean since September 1, 2021. Dr. Macones has provided exceptional leadership and service. Under his guidance, Dell Med has continued to thrive — graduating its third class, expanding graduate medical education programs, further improving access to specialty care in collaboration with Ascension Seton and other partners, and much more. I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Macones for his tremendous leadership and service. We are fortunate that he will continue at Dell Med as a professor, clinician-scientist and chair of the Department of Women’s Health.
I would also like to thank Executive Vice President and Provost Sharon L. Wood and the search committee for their thorough efforts. Health and well-being is an area of critical importance to our strategic plan, and I am thrilled to work with Dr. Lucchinetti as we continue to advance health outcomes, reduce disparities and drive Austin to become a model healthy city of the future.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Lucchinetti to the UT community!
Sincerely yours,
Jay Hartzell
President