John A. McDonald, M.D., Ph.D.

     In anticipation of the newly constituted Division of Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno, John A. McDonald, M.D., Ph.D., current dean of medicine and vice president of health sciences, will assume the sole role of vice president of health sciences effective July 1, 2008.

     McDonald will assume leadership of multiple units currently organized under the College of Health and Human Sciences, including nursing, public health, social work, and a number of health-related disciplines, as well as the School of Medicine. McDonald will report to University President Milton Glick and Provost Marc Johnson.

     McDonald has served as vice president for health sciences and dean of the University of Nevada School of Medicine since 2004. He has been instrumental in leading the school through a reorganization of the clinical practice plan, design of its first new biomedical research building in more than two decades, and championing funding for a new health sciences education building planned for the Reno health sciences campus to house medicine and nursing. New facilities in Las Vegas were also funded by the state legislature in order to eventually double the size of the medical school. New department chairs were recruited to internal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology in Las Vegas and pediatrics in Reno. During his tenure as dean, the school’s senior leadership was also expanded. Relations with University Medical Center, the medical school’s primary teaching affiliate in Las Vegas, were strengthened, and the medical class expanded by 20 percent.

     Previously, McDonald served as chief of medicine at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs medical center from 2001 to 2004 and guided the formation of a clinical and basic science research institute at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale from 1991 to 2001. From 1979 to 1991, he served at Washington University School of Medicine-Barnes Hospital in St. Louis where he built and directed an internationally recognized program in pulmonary and critical care medicine. McDonald has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, several books, and has lectured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. He received training in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and pulmonary disease at the National Institutes of Health. He earned his medical degree from Duke University and was awarded a doctorate in biochemistry from Rice University.

As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.