Associate Professor of Transplantation and Comprehensive Transplant Institute Director Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, has been selected as the inaugural Mark H. Deierhoi, M.D., Endowed Professor in the Department of Surgery.

Dr. Jayme Locke

As the holder of this professorship, Locke will be honored at the UAB School of Medicine’s Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception on Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. at the Wallace Tumor Institute.

“I am both humbled and honored to hold this title,” Locke said. “Without question, Dr. Deierhoi has positively impacted my career, and I will be forever grateful.”

The endowment, which was formally approved by the UAB Board of Trustees in April, supports the recruitment or retention of an experienced national leader in the field of surgery and seeks to enhance the academic stature and mission of the department.

“This professorship is a tremendous honor and a highlight of my career at UAB,” Deierhoi said. “I am deeply appreciative of the generous donations which made this possible and can think of no one I would rather see holding this position than Dr. Locke, who embodies the future of transplantation at UAB.”

Dr. Mark Deierhoi

Deierhoi has been a faculty member in the Department of Surgery since 1986 and has performed roughly 2,500 kidney transplants at UAB thus far – meaning that, over the course of his 33-year career, Deierhoi has been responsible for about 25 percent of all the kidney transplants that have been completed at UAB.  He has been instrumental in the evolution of transplant surgery and has played a significant role in the progression of the renal transplant program.

Deierhoi, who served as one of Locke’s mentors earlier in her career, is also considered by his trainees to be one of the most effective and influential surgical educators at UAB. In 2017, UAB’s general surgery residents honored Deierhoi with the Kirby I. Bland Surgical Faculty Teacher of the Year award, despite the fact that he was already several years’ removed from teaching by that point.

Many of the residents who have trained under Deierhoi say they are thankful to have had the opportunity to do so.

“Dr. Deierhoi is one of those people who touches the lives of everyone he meets,” said former UAB general surgery resident Laura Allen Hickman, M.D. “The appreciation from his patients, staff and residents is evident. He has served as a role model to me and is a reminder that one person can make a positive difference for countless individuals.”