UT Health Science Center President Willerson Announces Resignation
UT System Board of Regents will begin national search for successor
HOUSTON–(Sept. 26, 2007)–University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D., today announced his plan to step down as president of the institution when a successor has been named and is in place at the health science center.
Willerson, who was named president-elect of the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in October 2004, will begin working toward a leadership transition at Texas Heart Institute, which annually is ranked among the best cardiovascular institutions in the nation.
“Today, I have asked The University of Texas System to begin a search for my successor as President of the UT Health Science Center at Houston,” Willerson said. “I have agreed to become the next President of the Texas Heart Institute, succeeding Dr. Denton Cooley. I shall step down from my position as President of the UT Health Science Center at Houston as soon as an appropriate successor is found and is in place at UT Houston.”
During his seven years as president, Willerson led the health science center into an unprecedented period of dynamic growth, development and discovery. An internationally distinguished cardiologist and medical educator, he also is pioneering one of the first FDA-approved clinical trials to treat patients with end-stage heart disease using their own bone marrow-derived stem cells.
Willerson has personally spearheaded an ambitious effort to recruit and retain “world’s best scientists” in many disciplines, resulting in the appointments of internationally known new faculty members such as: leading geneticist C. Thomas Caskey, M.D.; Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., pioneer in biomedical nanotechnology; Dr. Paul Simmons, Ph.D., world leader in adult stem cell biology; and, most recently, Perry Bickel, M.D., renowned expert in obesity and metabolic disorders.
“Jim Willerson has served the UT Health Science Center at Houston, the UT System, and the people of Texas with great distinction. He has been a wonderful leader and medical educator, guiding the institution into greater prominence within the fields of health care and scientific research,” University of Texas System Chancellor Mark G. Yudof said. “More importantly, Jim is always mindful of the best interests of the institution’s students, faculty, and staff, as well as of the needs of the larger Houston community. The institution has been made stronger in his seven years at the helm, and we will always be grateful for his contributions."
Willerson announced his plans before a gathering of family members, friends, colleagues and collaborators in the atrium of the Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building – the new $120-million home of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM), a research center he led the way in creating and which he envisioned as “the cornerstone of the university, collaborating across all six UT Houston schools.”
In June, Willerson named Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., the Texas Medical Center’s only Nobel laureate in Medicine, as director emeritus of the Brown Foundation IMM, as well as Texas Nobel Scholar of the UT Health Science Center.
“Dr. Jim Willerson has been a tremendous leader – in the TMC and in the wider community. He has played an invaluable role in Houston's efforts to address air pollution. He led an ambitious endeavor to provide medical care to the thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees during a national crisis,” said Houston Mayor Bill White. “Dr. Willerson's vision in bringing important new research facilities and world-class scientists will boost economic development and improve the health of all Texans. It has been a pleasure to work with him at the UT Health Science Center, and we look forward to continuing that relationship as he takes a new leadership role at THI.”
Last month, UT Houston broke ground on the $161.5-million Research Park Complex, which will encompass 393,000 gross square feet and include the Dental Branch Replacement Building, the Neuroscience Building and the Biomedical Research and Education Facility (BREF).
In December, the six-story, $80.5-million Replacement Research Facility at the UT Medical School at Houston will open, providing a state-of-the-art vivarium and 120,000 square feet of new lab space for basic and translational research.
“This is a very exciting time to be at the UT Health Science Center and to have the opportunity to work in world-class facilities devoted to new discovery and disease prevention,” Willerson said. “We are very grateful to the UT System, the UT Regents, the Texas Legislature, the Governor and the generous people of Houston for making these new buildings possible.”
As Willerson begins the last phase of his presidency, the health science center already has:
- raised more than $700 million in philanthropic contributions, additional state funding, tuition revenue bonds (TRBs) and UT System financial support;
- appointed new deans of four of UT Houston’s six schools;
- increased research expenditures by 45 percent since 2000;
- received a $36-million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health – the first of only two CTSA grants in Texas;
- increased enrollment by 11 percent over the past five years, now teaching the largest total number of students (3,651) of any health-related institution in Texas
- completed, started constructing or acquired five new buildings to expand the campus and offer more convenient patient care.
READ more about “THE WILLERSON YEARS, TO DATE.”
“A national search for Dr. Willerson’s successor will be undertaken by a search committee organized under The University of Texas System Board of Regents’ Rules and Regulations,” said Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., UT System executive vice chancellor for health affairs. “As president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston, he has positioned the institution on an accelerated trajectory to excellence, and we are very grateful that Dr. Willerson will continue his present role until his successor has been appointed.”
Willerson came to Houston in 1989 as chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the UT Medical School, the position he held until the UT Board of Regents appointed him the fourth president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston on March 9, 2001.
“Dr. Jim Willerson has been a remarkably effective leader of the UT Health Science Center at Houston, achieving great progress in all areas of research, education and patient care,” said Richard E. Wainerdi, Ph.D., president of the 46-institution Texas Medical Center. “I am delighted that he will remain in the Texas Medical Center leading the Texas Heart Institute into the future, building on the strong foundations established by Dr. Denton Cooley with whom he will continue to work closely as the Texas Heart Institute moves to higher levels of excellence in cardiovascular research, education and patient care.”
A native of Lampasas, Texas – and the son of two physicians – he attended The University of Texas at Austin on a swimming scholarship. Willerson graduated with honors in 1965 from Baylor College of Medicine.
He and his wife, Nancy Beamer Willerson, have two grown daughters and two grandchildren.