Professor Lisa Willett, M.D., MACM, will serve as Executive Vice Chair (EVC) for the Department of Medicine, effective July 1, 2024.

Dr. Willett adds this role to her current service as Vice Chair for Education and Faculty Development. As EVC, she will serve as the lead faculty partner to the Chair and Interim Chair, reporting directly to them.

She will work closely with the Executive Administrator, Vice Chairs, and Division Directors to advance our mission: to provide life-changing care for our patients today, and to ensure that care for tomorrow through training and discovery.

Dr. Willett is a nationally esteemed physician, teacher, colleague, and leader who has devoted her medical career to UAB, our patients, and our learners. She received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University and MD from UAB School of Medicine. She then trained at UAB in the Internal Medicine Residency Program and served as Chief Resident at UAB under William “Bill” Dismukes, M.D.

After joining our faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Dr. Willett served as Associate Program Director and as Program Director of the Tinsley Harrison Internal Medicine Residency Program, training over 800 residents while also caring for patients both in UAB Prime Care and on the Tinsley Harrison inpatient general medicine service. Under her leadership, the residency received stellar ratings from the ACGME and achieved ABIM pass rates of nearly 100%. Dr. Willett received awards for clinical excellence and teaching from the Department and the School as well as the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the ACGME Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award, ACP Laureate, and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.

Dr. Willett has published extensively about clinical medicine, graduate medical education, the development of faculty as clinician-educators, and physician parental leave. Her discussion of a 76-year old woman with abdominal pain, weight loss, and memory loss in the Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital exemplifies UAB Medicine’s clinical excellence. She served as President of the Association of Program Directors of Internal Medicine and served on the Board, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine.