Duke Names Chancellor for Health Affairs and CEO of Health System

Durham's Duke University has announced its choice for the top official over the Duke University Health System. This is another major milestone for Durham's continued reputation as a globally-recognized destination for those seeking medical care.

A. Eugene Washington, M.D., an internationally renowned clinical investigator, health-policy scholar and executive at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will become Duke University’s next chancellor for health affairs and the president and chief executive officer of the Duke University Health System.

Washington, will begin his new role on April 1 and will oversee one of the world’s leading academic and health care systems, including Duke’s medical school, nursing school and extensive programs for patient care, biomedical research and community service.

Washington, 64, currently serves as vice chancellor for health sciences, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and chief executive officer of the UCLA Health System, where he is also a distinguished professor of gynecology and health policy and holds the Gerald S. Levey, M.D. Endowed Chair. At Duke, he will succeed Victor J. Dzau, M.D., who stepped down as the university’s senior medical officer on June 30 to become president of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences.

Washington has been a national leader in assessing medical technologies, translating research into health policy and shaping health care practice. He helped spearhead efforts to change clinical practice and policy guidelines for prenatal genetics, cervical cancer screening and prevention, and reproduction-related infections. He also has been a national thought leader in calling for academic health systems to reconfigure broadly and to assume the lead in creating new models for research, education, clinical care and community engagement.

Learn all about Durham's legacy as the City of Medicine online.