UWIRC Leadership Changes August 1, 2020

As many of you know, Dr. Lou Bridges has accepted the roles of Physician-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery; and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at HSS and the Weill Cornell College of Medicine. He will start these new roles on September 1, 2020. Dr. Ken Saag recently accepted the role of Director for the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology beginning on July 1. Dr. Saag will step down as Director of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE), a role which he has held for the past 10 years. He remains fully committed to further growing outcomes research at UAB and will stay engaged with the COERE as a member of the Internal Advisory Committee. Dr. Saag will also assume the role of Director of the Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone, and Autoimmunity Center effective August 1.

We are also pleased to announce that Dr. Michael Mugavero, Professor of Medicine, will succeed Ken to become the next Director of the COERE effective August 1st. Dr. Mugavero has served as an Associate Director of the COERE since 2014, and as Co-Director since 2017. A Co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research since 2012, he is highly regarded nationally for his innovative work studying HIV clinical and population health outcomes. A dedicated mentor, Dr. Mugavero has led the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences Training Academy since 2017, and was the 2020 recipient of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality John M. Eisenberg Excellence in Mentorship Award. In recent years he has spearheaded a number of successful new programs, including DRIVEN and GRIT, as well as co-leading the COVID-19 Collaborative Outcomes Research Enterprise (CORE), engaging over 90 faculty, students and staff from across campus in 3 programmatic and 7 scientific working groups, supported by the COERE and CCTS.