On Sept. 17th Dr. Michael Good, Senior Vice President of the Health Sciences, announced the appointment of Dr. Willard H. Dere, MD, FACP, as Associate Vice President for Research, Health Sciences at the University of Utah Health, effective September 1, 2019. Dr. Dere has served as a professor in Internal Medicine, Co-Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine, and Co-Director of the Utah Center for Clinical and Translational Science. He has extensive experience in clinical research, complementing his 25 years in the biopharmaceutical industry with substantive work in drug safety and regulations. Dr. Dere received his internal medicine residency training at U of U Health’s School of Medicine. After further training in endocrinology and metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco, he returned to Utah to join the medical school faculty. We would like to congratulate Dr. Dere on his new position here at the University of Utah.
Dr. Dere has stated that “The biomedical community is making major scientific advances at the discovery bench, and due to advances in technology, are poised to make even more discoveries in a broad range of areas ranging from understanding the genetic basis of rare or complex chronic diseases to learning the complex web of socio-economic and environmental factors which influence health and disease. At U of U Health, we are blessed with a community of researchers who are passionate about improving human health. Our work environment is conducive to the collaboration and teamwork required to understand the basic mechanisms of disease and to improve methods of translating scientific discoveries to favorably impacting patients’ lives in an efficient and effective manner.”