A. Eugene Washington, M.D., chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System (DUHS), has been reappointed to a second five-year term beginning July 1, 2020, President Vincent E. Price announced today.

Washington’s reappointment was ratified by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees following a review chaired by Duke trustee and DUHS board member Nancy Schlichting.

“When I came to Duke in 2017, it was in part to have the opportunity to work with Gene Washington, who is a national leader in academic medicine,” said Price. “Since then, I have seen first-hand his commitment to the highest standards in patient care, education, research and public service. Gene is an effective and collaborative partner across the university in advancing our strategic goals, and I am particularly grateful for the ways in which he has embraced and advanced Duke Health’s engagement with Durham and our broader community. Duke will be a better place for his continued leadership.”

Since coming to Duke in 2015 from UCLA, where he had served as vice chancellor of health sciences, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine and chief executive officer of the UCLA Health System, Washington has led Duke Health through a series of transformations in patient care, biomedical research and community engagement. In 2016, he introduced “Advancing Health Together,” a comprehensive, integrated strategic planning framework based on academic, clinical and population health priorities. Under his leadership, Duke Medicine was renamed Duke Health, signaling the intention to explore more comprehensive approaches to health that extend beyond medical care.

In 2017, he led the creation of Translating Duke Health, a multidisciplinary program focused on five campus-wide areas with widely recognized excellence in both research and clinical care, and that have the potential to transform the approach to these disease areas.

Under Washington’s direction, Duke has constructed new medical research and educational facilities, began work on a new patient bed tower at Duke Hospital and is undertaking significant additions at Duke Regional and Duke Raleigh hospitals. In 2016, the School of Nursing achieved Duke’s first-ever number one ranking in U.S. News and World Report.

Washington has also deepened the engagement of Duke Health with both the Duke and Durham communities through Healthy Duke and Healthy Durham 20/20. These programs aim to empower individuals to participate in improving their health, the health of their loved ones, and the health and well-being of the community. As part of these initiatives, Duke adopted a new university-wide smoke-free policy that will go into effect in July 2020.

Earlier in his career, Washington served as executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he also co-founded UCSF’s Medical Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations and was chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. He previously worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. 

Washington is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on a number of professional and government boards and committees. He is a 1976 graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine and completed graduate studies at both UC Berkeley and Harvard schools of public health, and residency training at Stanford University.

In addition to Schlicting, the review committee included vice chair Chris Woods, professor of medicine and global health in the School of Medicine, and members Susan Stalnecker (trustee emerita; director, DUHS), Janice Humphreys (School of Nursing) Fan Wang (School of Medicine), John Rawls (School of Medicine), Kafui Dzirasa (School of Medicine), Donald Taylor, Jr. (Sanford School of Public Policy), Larry Carin (Pratt School of Engineering), Valerie Ashby (Trinity College of Arts & Sciences), Kyle Cavanaugh (Administration), and Katie Galbraith (Duke Regional Hospital).