Bright Minds, Big Ideas

Endowed Chair Holders at CU Anschutz

Much like Olympians are considered the gold standard for athletes, endowed chairs are considered the highest level of achievement in academic medical institutions. Crucial to recruiting and retaining the best of the best, endowed chairs are awarded to top faculty scholars from around the world. Established with a gift of $2 million or more, an endowed chair offers resources for the faculty chair holder to seek untapped discoveries that propel scientific research forward. Endowed chair holders honor and embrace the responsibility to guide the next generation of healthcare specialists and improve the lives of all those they serve.  

CU Anschutz has over 150 endowed chairs on campus, a testament to the meaningful impact university faculty and staff have had on the lives of individuals and foundations in the community. Endowed chairs make progress in academic medicine and healthcare possible.

We’re proud to introduce some of the faculty members who were awarded an endowed chair during the 2023 fiscal year. In their own words, they discuss their work, their lives outside campus and how philanthropy has helped them in their pursuit of excellence in healthcare.
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Dr Lilia Cervantes

Maryam Asgari, MD, MPH

University of Colorado Medicine Endowed Chair in Dermatology

Chair of the Department of Dermatology since 2023, Asgari’s focus is on patient-oriented research, epidemiology and etiology of skin diseases. Analyzing factors like genetics and environmental exposure, she examines a variety of treatments. She considers her work to be patient-centric, and cares deeply about patient satisfaction in skin cancer treatment.   

Why dermatology?

I chose dermatology because when I was a medical student, I recognized that it is a window into the body. Diseases manifest on the skin, and this is a way to view the health of the person. You can see the manifestation and how the treatment is working. With skin, it was instant gratification. I found that exciting. My specific field is Mohs surgery. I found Mohs to be the most gratifying thing to do in my training. You can cure cancer in one sitting. I cure cancer every day!

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Dr David Badesch

David Badesch, MD

Kerry and Megan Hicks Endowed Chair in Pulmonary Hypertension

Badesch, a faculty member and interim division head of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, has helped design and conduct multiple clinical trials exploring new potential therapies for pulmonary hypertension. He and his team have contributed to the clinical development of many of the 14 currently approved therapies.

Why pulmonary sciences?

I’ve always been driven to change the status quo. I want to help lead the development of exciting, novel approaches to treating pulmonary disease.

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FPO

Tracy Bale, PhD

The Anschutz Foundation Endowed Chair in Women's Integrated Mental and Physical Health Research

Bale studies the biological basis of stress and adversity and how it alters the brain during periods of development and maturation, increasing the risk for neuropsychiatric disease. The goal of her research is to identify novel mechanisms and potential biomarkers that can be used to improve treatments and develop interventions to reduce disease risk.

Why neuroscience?

I have always been drawn to the intrigue and puzzle of the brain. From there, it was a natural entry into how important it is to understand the biology of how stress alters brain development and puts individuals at risk for neuropsychiatric disease, including depression and anxiety. We know relatively little about the biology and have no current biomarkers. I have an interest in sex differences and women’s increased risk for affective disorders across the lifespan. Women have often been left out of clinical trials and studies, so we know a lot less about their unique risks and biology, especially in periods of increased vulnerability such as pregnancy.

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Benjamin Bitler

Benjamin Bitler, PhD

D. Thomas and Kay L. Dunton Endowed Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research

The research in Bitler’s lab is laser-focused on eradicating ovarian cancer. The lab’s goal is to improve early cancer detection methods and develop novel, targeted and less toxic therapies. Working with investigators from all over the globe, Bitler and his team practice cutting-edge research techniques to improve patient outcomes and save lives.

Why ovarian cancer research?

Growing up, I had an interest in science and medicine. My goal was to practice medicine. At the age of 18 my mom passed away from advanced stage breast cancer, and as a caretaker I witnessed firsthand the catastrophic impact of both the cancer and its treatments. This experience propelled me into the field of cancer research.

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Marco Del Chiaro

Marco Del Chiaro, MD

Morton and Sandra Saffer Cancer Center Endowed Chair in Personalized Cancer Treatment and Oncology Leadership

Del Chiaro is a surgical oncologist with 15 years of experience in the treatment of pancreatic diseases. He and his team use a unique approach and multimodal chemoradiotherapy to allow more surgical options for locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients. His academic research is focused on improving pancreatic cancer survival through both prevention and aggressive treatment of advanced tumors and creating a multimodal personalized treatment for each patient.

Why cancer treatment?

My life changed when my grandfather had a pioneering medical operation. Our family was genuinely concerned that he would not survive. After tears in the waiting room came relief and happiness when the surgeon came out and told us that everything went well. I loved the joy everyone felt after we were crying just a few hours before. I thought about how beautiful it would be to be able to save people’s lives. I knew after such a moving family experience, I wanted to study to be a surgeon – bringing that kind of happiness to others.

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Heide Ford

Heide Ford, MD

University of Colorado Medicine Endowed Chair in Pharmacology

Cancer cells hijack normal developmental processes in the body. Ford and her team try to understand precisely how these processes are hijacked, and then develop novel ways to target them. The hope is that these novel therapies present less toxicities than normal cancer therapies. 

Why pharmacology?  

I’ve loved biology for as long as I can remember. The power of medicine to cure/reverse/inhibit diseases was very personal to me, having been born with craniosynostosis, which was corrected when I was only six weeks old. In graduate school, I began working on cancer biology, and became very interested in how normal cells go awry and become malignant. In my postdoctoral years, I discovered a novel developmental protein that plays a role in cancer. Almost all of us have lost loved ones to cancer, and I am no exception. My research has been shaped by both personal and intellectual interests.

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Terry Fry

Terry Fry, MD

Charles C. Gates Endowed Chair at the Gates Institute

As executive director of the Gates Institute, Fry oversees a team that will lead the development of clinical trials of novel cell and gene therapies. Initial studies will focus on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, with a goal to explore other opportunities for CAR T-cell therapies outside the realm of cancer. He also mentors researchers in this new field of study, laying the groundwork for many discoveries yet to come.

Why regenerative medicine?

I got into pediatrics not really knowing exactly where I was going to end up. I was attracted to the field of immunology. I became interested in oncology because I saw so much potential in the way immunology could be applied to treat childhood leukemias. Serendipitously, I was at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when NIH researchers began studying the use of engineered white blood cells to fight cancer. We applied the use of CAR T-cells to treat pediatric leukemia with remarkable success, resulting in complete eradication of leukemia in patients for whom other treatments had failed.

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Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer

Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, PhD

Endowed Chair in Ophthalmic Data Sciences

Kalpathy-Cramer, who joined the Division of Artificial Medical Intelligence in the Department of Ophthalmology in 2022, works in the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods in medical imaging. She and her team focus on discovering ways to combine advances in computation and machine learning to leverage the wealth of existing clinical data in hospital systems. The goal is to guide future care by improving diagnoses and optimizing treatment to improve outcomes in ophthalmology.

Why ophthalmic data sciences?

I have always been drawn to the STEM fields – as a child and through school, math was my favorite subject. My parents were inspirations to me; my mother was a physics professor and my dad worked in the pharmaceutical industry. I studied electrical engineering. After working in the semiconductor industry for several years, I was eager to apply quantitative techniques in medicine, so I pivoted to academic medicine. I have been working at the intersection of computer science, mathematics and medicine for the last 15 years.

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Kristi Kuhn

Kristine Kuhn, MD, PhD

Kathryne E. and David M. Scoville Endowed Chair

Kuhn joined the Division of Rheumatology in 2013. She and her colleagues are interested in how the gut microbiome triggers immune responses that lead to rheumatoid arthritis and spondylarthritis. Analyzing the immune system, they single out potentially bad bacteria and then test how it causes disease. By discovering how the gut microbiome interacts with other systems, they hope to determine causes of autoimmune disease and identify methods of prevention.

Why rheumatology?

I grew up on a farm in Western Kansas. As an only child, I spent much of my time exploring the natural world around me, curious to observe animals and their environment. This grew into a desire to research human health and disease. Ultimately, I migrated into rheumatology because it is a field without algorithms. Each patient is unique in their symptoms and treatment. I like the process of applying knowledge and observing the (hopefully favorable) outcome. In my training, the question that often arose in my mind was, “What triggers the immune system to cause inflammation in the absence of infection?” This question led to our current research connecting the gut microbiome and disease.

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Jay Lemery

Jay Lemery, MD

Endowed Chair in Climate Medicine

Lemery and his colleagues have defined the novel field of climate medicine, a body of knowledge, skills, and abilities that prepares doctors, nurses and healthcare leaders to care for patients and communities in the face of accelerating climate threats. This work allows Lemery and his colleagues to have a seat at the table with policymakers to advocate for smart, risk-based, patient-centric climate policies. The CU School of Medicine’s Endowed Chair in Climate Medicine is the first of its kind in the country.

Why climate medicine?  

In the early 2000s, I was running a wilderness medicine program at my former institution – with a dual mandate to consider both the health of individuals in remote and austere environments and the ecosystems themselves. I became very concerned about the growing politicization of science, especially the obfuscation of data around climate science. I considered the very real threat to human health – where were the healthcare providers? Why the conspicuous absence? Since then, my work has focused on amplifying the voice of healthcare providers as knowledgeable and credible leaders on the health risks of climate change. 

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Cari Levy

Cari Levy, MD, PhD

Goodstein Chair in Geriatrics

Levy provides care for older adults and people with serious illness, with a focus on aligning care with their life priorities. She conducts research to understand the benefits and limitations of models of care designed for senior citizens. Also providing mentorship to students at CU Anschutz who are interested in geriatrics, palliative care and health services research, she is helping to establish the next generation of healthcare professionals.  

Why geriatrics?

My first exposure to research was conducting chart reviews for patients diagnosed with mononucleosis when I worked as a medical assistant for a pediatrician. My thirst for new discoveries continued into medical school at CU Anschutz, when William Robinson, MD, encouraged me to join him in Australia for a summer to research melanoma. Then, during residency, Wes Ely, MD, MPH, and Randy Curtis, MD, served as mentors on a project focused on death in the intensive care unit. Finally, during geriatric fellowship, Andy Kramer, MD, introduced me to health services research in nursing homes, and I’d found the type of research and the setting of care that were a perfect match.

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Sophie Liao

Sophie Liao, MD

Robert H. Bell Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology

Liao says she has the perfect job: as an oculoplastic surgeon, she diagnoses and treats both acute and chronic diseases of and around the eye and orbit. Treatment may involve counseling or medication alone or may require surgery that can range from simple to complex collaborative procedures involving surgeons from other departments.  

Why ophthalmology? 

The eye is a polarizing body part. It seems to either fascinate people or give people the squirmies. I have always been in the first group, so when I decided to go to medical school, specializing in eye care was a natural step. I love fixing problems in an area that is so critical to my patients' everyday lives.

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Robert Meguid

Robert A. Meguid, MD, MPH

Stan and Mary Ellen Cope Family Endowed Chair in Thoracic Surgery

Meguid treats patients with diseases of the chest – both cancerous and non-cancerous. His clinical work is tied to his medical research: he focuses on understanding surgery’s impact on a patient’s quality of life, how to improve understanding of surgery’s risks, and how to identify, avoid and address complications of surgery. His additional research objectives include trying to understand underserved populations and their barriers in access to care and improving lung cancer surveillance and survival rates.

Why thoracic surgery?

I was drawn to healthcare with a desire to improve patient outcomes after surgery. I want to help patients better understand what surgery entails so they can continue to live fulfilling lives after they recover.

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Sharon Pine

Sharon Pine, PhD

Pia and Fred R. Hirsch Endowed Chair in Lung Cancer Research

Pine arrived at the CU Cancer Center in 2022 to serve as director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Initiative (TORI). Her work focuses on understanding resistance to targeted therapies, discovering biomarkers for lung cancer, studying health disparities that contribute to the disease and building relationships with the community to bridge the gap between research and non-scientific communities.

Why lung cancer research?

I chose this field because of the urgent need to address the devastating impact of lung cancer. Lung cancer accounts for an estimated 130,000 annual deaths in the U.S., making up approximately 25% of all cancer-related deaths. Despite significant advancements in immunotherapy and targeted therapies that have extended patient survival, lung cancer continues to be a major burden. I am highly motivated to address these issues and make a positive impact in lung cancer research to improve patient outcomes and reduce the burden of this disease.

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Dennis Roop

Dennis Roop, PhD

John S. Gates Endowed Chair in Stem Cell Biology

A professor of dermatology at CU Anschutz since 2006, Roop and his research team are currently developing a stem cell-based therapy for epidermolysis bullosa (EB). Their research entails isolating an EB patient’s skin cells, correcting the genetic defect within the cell, and returning the corrected skin cells to the same patient as a normal skin graft.

Why biology?

Initially, it was an accident. About 30 years ago, my research team was trying to understand the role of a specific gene on the skin. When we mutated the gene in mice, baby mice developed blisters on their feet. One researcher said they looked like blisters that develop in humans who have EB, an inherited disease. The genetic cause of the human disease was unknown. We obtained DNA samples from patients with EB and discovered genetic mutations that cause the skin to form blisters easily. After we published the genetic cause of EB, I was invited to an annual meeting for patients who suffer from EB. Children with EB are called “butterfly children,” because their skin is so fragile it blisters upon minor trauma. They live a life of constant pain and suffering, and often die at an early age due to complications resulting from blistering. As a scientist, once you see a child with EB, you feel compelled to try to find a cure for this terrible disease.

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Hatim Sabaawy

Hatim Sabaawy, MD, PhD

Stapp Endowed Chair for Cancer Research

Sabaawy’s work in precision medicine is a three-pronged approach to personalized care that includes improving cancer diagnosis with new technologies, developing patient-derived models to better represent patients in preclinical testing, and designing pretested therapies to enhance patient survival.

Why gene therapy and medicine?

I choose to do translational and clinical research because I want to help bridge the gap between basic science and the clinic. Our goal is to advance novel therapeutic strategies faster, which will ultimately help deliver personalized, tailored therapies to patients.

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Prem Subramanian

Prem Subramanian, MD, PhD

Clifford R. and Janice N. Merrill Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology

Subramanian’s clinical work involves the complex diagnosis and medical and/or surgical treatment of diseases that affect the visual pathways beyond the eye itself. His research ranges from the evaluation of eye movement and alignment disorders in brain-injured veterans to the development of new drug therapies to protect visual function in patients with swollen optic nerves.

Why ophthalmology? 

I had an interest in eye disease from a young age because of some conditions that run in my family, and I have worn glasses and contact lenses from age five. When I was a graduate student, my PhD work was supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute that was designed to attract future clinician-scientists to the field of eye research. That, along with a love for what I saw clinical ophthalmologists doing, led me to where I am today.

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Sachin Wani

Sachin Wani, MD

Katy O. and Paul M. Rady Endowed Chair in Esophageal Cancer Research

Wani is a gastroenterologist, an interventional endoscopist and a professor of medicine at the CU School of Medicine. Much of his work with patients involves diagnosing and treating cancer of the esophagus. When patients are diagnosed with late-stage cancer, they often don’t have many options besides palliative care. Wani’s goal is to change that paradigm by developing and refining methods of early detection that are simple and can be performed in a gastroenterologist’s office.

Why gastroenterology?

My intense desire to change the status quo is one thing that drives me to get out of bed every morning. Far too often, definitive treatments cannot be offered to patients who present with esophageal cancer. Seeing that just inspires me day in and day out to make a difference.

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Office of Advancement

CU Anschutz

Fitzsimons Building

13001 East 17th Place

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303-724-8227

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