Mary Klotman named next dean of the School of Medicine

Dr. Mary Klotman was named dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor for health affairs, the University announced Monday.

Klotman currently serves as the chair of Duke's department of medicine, a position she has had for almost seven years. She previously served as the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai and was the co-director of Mount Sinai’s Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute. Klotman will begin her new role July 1.

“Mary Klotman is a visionary leader, deft executive administrator and congenital collaborator with an unwavering commitment to excellence,” said Dr. A. Eugene Washington, chancellor of health affairs and president and CEO of Duke University Health System, in a Duke Today release. “She has amply demonstrated her exceptional ability to engage diverse groups to successfully advance all the missions of our academic health system. I am confident Mary will continue to excel in capitalizing on the enormous talent and promise of our people in Duke Health to improve health worldwide.”

As president of the Association of Professors on Medicine and a member of the Council for the Association of American Physicians, Klotman has earned national acclaim for her work. Her research has focused on HIV with an emphasis on how the virus can impact the kidneys.

“The next leader of the Duke University School of Medicine needs to have keen instincts about how to best support clinical and basic research while adapting nimbly and creatively to a changing health landscape,” said President Richard Brodhead, in the release. “In Mary Klotman, Duke has found a dean with all the tools to do this job brilliantly. She has impressed colleagues across the university with her strength of purpose, clarity, judgment, and love of Duke. Duke Health can look forward to a great new chapter with Mary in this new role leading the School of Medicine.”

Her appointment is the result of a six-month search which began when Dr. Nancy Andrews announced this summer her plans to step down in June 2017.

Klotman received a degree in zoology from Duke and then went on to earn her medical degree and complete her residency and fellowship training at Duke.

“I am tremendously honored and humbled to have been selected as the next dean of what I know to be among the finest medical schools in the country,” Klotman said in the release. “Duke’s greatest strength is its people. I look forward to working collaboratively with colleagues within Duke Health and across Duke University to further advance this institution that has so profoundly influenced me.”