The University announced Friday the appointment of Dr. David S. Wilkes as the new dean of the School of Medicine.
Wilkes begins the five-year appointment Sept. 15 and will replace Interim Dean Dr. Randolph J. Canterbury. Wilkes currently serves as executive associate dean for research affairs at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he has worked since 1992. He also served as director of Indiana University’s Center for Immunobiology, which he is credited with helping create.
“I lived in Indiana for 22 years. That’s a lot of friends, a lot of very strong relationships… And as well, my children, who are now adults, basically grew up in Indianapolis, so this is very much like leaving home,” Wilkes said.
Wilkes said he was drawn to the University because it is an “elite institution,” and because of its leadership. He said he looks forward to working with people like Dr. Richard Shannon, executive vice president for health affairs, and University Medical Center CEO Pamela Sutton-Wallace.
“One of the things that I think will be important for medical students to learn is leadership,” Wilkes said. “I’d like to have a big role in that. Dr. Canterbury and I have discussed a little already, and it sounds like he already has a plan.”
Wilkes, a pulmonary critical care physician who has studied lung transplant rejection and lung cell biology, said he is not sure whether he will be able to continue performing research as dean, but he is sure his background in research will help him lead the research department and the medical school as a whole.
“In the beginning, it will be listening a lot, and then doing needs assessment, and then really just taking it from there, and really learning the lay of the land to figure out what those next steps are going to be,” Wilkes said.
Wilkes has served as the national director of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 2013 and was given the Alvin S. Bynum Mentoring Award from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. However, one of Wilkes’ most formative leadership experiences came decades earlier.
During the mid-80s, Wilkes directed an intensive care unit in an Air Force teaching hospital in Texas.
“Getting that type of leadership experience that early in one’s career can make a real difference,” Wilkes said. “You learn a lot, you learn a lot what to do, and you also learn other approaches to care. So, I’ve been very fortunate to have had this experience.”
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