The Chronicle of Higher Education May 11, 2015 Medical College’s Next President to Focus on Health Care for the Underserved, and Other News About People In 2011, James E.K. Hildreth left Meharry Medical College, in Nashville — where he was a professor — to become dean of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California at Davis. But he always felt a deep connection to Meharry, one of the nation’s oldest historically black medical colleges. During the six years he worked there, he did research on HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and founded the institution’s Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research. The bond was strong enough to lure him back, this time to serve as its president and chief executive. On July 1, he will succeed A. Cherrie Epps, who was 83 when she was appointed to the post two years ago. "My coming back is to be part of a place that as its core mission is trying to provide health care to the underserved," says Dr. Hildreth. A Harvard graduate, Dr. Hildreth earned a doctorate in immunology from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University, where his academic career began. Yet, Dr. Hildreth says, his father’s death from cancer when he was 11 — there was limited medical care for poor black people in their small Arkansas town — helped produce the kind of passion for medicine that makes him an especially good fit at Meharry. "In some ways the health-disparities issue is what prompted me to become a physician in the first place," he says. Dr. Hildreth wants to take advantage of Meharry’s small size, which allows it to be "creative and innovative in thinking about new ways to deliver care," he says. "I think all the ingredients are there for that to work." Being a familiar face at Meharry should make his job easier, Dr. Hildreth says, but he still plans to spend time early on reconnecting with some people and meeting others. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.