Dear Colleagues-Friends,

From new programs here on campus, to programs that span VCU’s campuses or even span the globe, it’s invigorating to learn about the work of our colleagues.

  • For Greg Hundley, M.D., the Pauley Heart Center’s inaugural director, his arrival on the MCV Campus this summer was a homecoming. Even before pursuing his M.D. here as part of the Class of 1988, he got his start as an undergraduate student under the mentorship of Hermes A. Kontos, M.D., Ph.D., who served both as dean of the medical school and as VP for health sciences. More recently, Dr. Hundley has participated in research funded by more than $71 million in NIH grants and was first in the world to demonstrate MRI stress testing can identify those at risk of heart attack. His work here is supported by the opening of a new Cardiovascular Imaging Suite made possible by an investment from the Pauley Family Foundation.
  • We’ve seen wonderful programs and projects grow out of partnerships between faculty from the School of Medicine and the School of the Arts. Now, John E. Nestler, M.D., has been named the inaugural physician-scientist-in-residence at the VCU School of the Arts, and we are particularly enthusiastic about his new role because he will be looking so broadly for new opportunities. From solutions to clinical problems to teaching medical students empathy, humanism and observation skills, or even building resiliency and fighting physician burnout, the intersection between arts and medicine has the potential to be life-changing.
  • Almost every year since 2009, Urology Chair Lance Hampton, M.D., has traveled to Vietnam as a volunteer mentor for IVUmed’s Traveling Resident Scholarship Program, thanks in part to support he receives as the holder of the Barbara and William B. Thalhimer Jr. Professorship in Urology. “These trips have enhanced my surgical practice in many ways and have helped me to educate future urologists and help the patients of central Virginia as well.”

I hope you’ll enjoy reading their stories.

With every good wish,

Peter F. Buckley, M.D.
Dean, VCU School of Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, VCU Health System