Dr. Bruce Kone, dean of the COM, filled several open chair positions during the first two months of 2008. Some with familiar faces and names who have been serving in the interim capacity for many months. With this first edition of the Insider, we bring our readers up to date on these important new appointments.
Gold named chair of UF psychiatry department
Mark Gold, M.D., an international authority on addiction medicine and 1975 graduate from the UF College of Medicine, has been named chairman of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of psychiatry.
“I feel extremely fortunate that Dr. Gold has agreed to take on the ambitious task of leading the department to great national prominence,” said Kone, who cited Gold’s extensive clinical and research accomplishments as well as his teaching contributions in announcing the appointment.
Gold’s work has changed the medical field’s understanding of how drugs of abuse from – tobacco to cocaine to narcotics – function in the human brain.
“Addiction, behavioral and mental health problems are the nation’s top public health issues and some of the most treatable and cost-effective to treat,” said Gold, UF’s Dizney eminent scholar and a distinguished professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, anesthesiology, and community health and family medicine. “Addiction research and treatment has grown considerably here at the McKnight Brain Institute, Shands at Vista and the Florida Recovery Center. In the process, our FRC program has grown to national prominence and our research has helped long-suffering patients and reduced stigma. We hope to use what we have learned over the past 15-plus years to foster the development of a broad range of high-impact research and nationally recognized clinical treatment services in child, adolescent, college health, geriatric, community, addiction, forensic and veterans’ psychiatry.”
Gold replaces Dr. Wayne K. Goodman, chairman of psychiatry at UF since 1998, who is now serving as the director of the division for adult translational research for the National Institute of Mental Health.
Enneking to take over chair in anesthesiology
Dr. Kayser Enneking, a professor in both the departments of anesthesiology and orthopaedics and rehabilitation, will take over as chair of the department of anesthesiology on May 1.”Dr. Enneking’s selection came after considerable consultation with departmental faculty, COM and Shands HealthCare leaders, national experts in the field and my personal experience working with her,” Kone said. “She is an exceptional physician, mentor and leader.”
Enneking, a 1996 graduate of the COM, is viewed as an international expert in regional anesthesia and has made extensive contributions to the clinical operations of our academic health center through her roles as medical director of the Florida Surgical Center and assistant dean for clinical affairs. Her performance as a teacher and mentor has had a far-reaching impact on medical student and resident education.
Enneking will replace current chair, Dr. Nik Gravenstein, who requested to step down to pursue other clinical and academic interests after leading the department for 11 years.
“A fundamental hallmark of excellent leaders is the ability to plan for successful succession, and I am very grateful to Dr. Gravenstein for that,” Kone said.
Joseph Tyndall is UF’s new chairman of emergency medicine
After serving as interim chairman of the department of emergency medicine since August, Joseph Adrian Tyndall, M.D., has been named the new chairman of the emergency medicine in Gainesville.Tyndall, a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine, is the first black faculty member in the college to serve as a department chairman. Tyndall is now responsible for emergency medicine’s clinical operations, its student and faculty tenure and promotion processes and its residency program, which he hopes to strengthen. The appointment was effective Jan. 1.
“Dr. Tyndall is exceptionally well-qualified for the job and one of the emerging key leaders in our institution,” said Kone. “It is a credit to him, our partners at Shands HeathCare and our institution that Dr. Tyndall has enthusiastically agreed to take on the many challenges ahead.”
In his new position, Tyndall plans to put UF’s emergency medicine programs in Gainesville on the map by continuing the college’s dedication to first-class emergency care and a strong research-based residency program.
“Our growth as an institution depends on attracting outstanding residency candidates,” Tyndall said. “We’ve seen great promise in our first graduation class and hope to continue the tradition.”
Dr. Richard Bucciarelli appointed chairman of pediatricsRichard Bucciarelli, M.D., has been appointed chairman of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of pediatrics after serving in an interim capacity for nearly a year. He also was named the Nemours eminent scholar chair in pediatrics.”Dr. Bucciarelli has done an outstanding job as interim chairman of the department for the past 10 months,” Kone said. “He has earned the respect, admiration and praise of not only his faculty, but also faculty from across the COM, as well as leaders and providers in the Shands HealthCare system.”
Bucciarelli, who has been a member of the UF faculty for more than 20 years, graduated from the University of Michigan School of Medicine in 1972. He completed his pediatric training at UF before leaving to serve as a member of the pediatric faculty at the University of Utah.
He returned to UF in 1982 as chief of neonatology.
“Without a doubt the atmosphere at the University of Florida has given me opportunities that I wouldn’t have had anywhere else,” Bucciarelli said.
Bucciarelli is past president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and currently serves as UF’s associate vice president for health affairs for government relations. He remains involved in pediatric health policy research and has worked to examine both the Healthy Kids and KidCare programs in Florida. He was instrumental in creating the AAP MediKids proposal that was introduced in Congress in 2001 and 2003 and is an active part of the debate on Medicaid reform in Florida and in Washington, D.C.