UAMS College of Medicine Names Ansel Chairman of Dermatology
| LITTLE ROCK – John C. Ansel, M.D., has been appointed chairman of the Department of Dermatology in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine. Ansel was previously a tenured professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Colorado Denver on the Anschutz Medical Campus, with a joint appointment in the Department of Ophthalmology. He was also on the staff of the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora and the Veterans Administration Eastern Colorado Health Care System in Denver. Ansel earned his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical University in Philadelphia in 1977. He completed his residency in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a fellow at the National Institutes of Health from 1981 to 1986 in the Laboratory of Immunology and in the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology. Ansel then joined the Department of Dermatology at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, where he developed a research program that focused on the role of cytokines in skin inflammation, corneal disease, wound healing and tumorigenesis. Ansel joined the Dermatology Department at Emory University in Atlanta in 1995, where he was a professor with tenure. He also joined the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center, where he served as the Dermatology Section chief. He held a joint appointment in the Department of Ophthalmology at Emory. From 2002 to 2004, he was a professor in the Department of Dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, serving as chairman from 2002 to 2003. Ansel has been a leader in many national dermatology organizations, including the Society for Investigative Dermatology, Ansel’s research has been funded by the NIH and VA and it focuses on the role of the neurologic and immunologic systems in mediating inflammation in the skin and eye. His interests also include novel immunotherapeutic approaches for treating malignant melanoma. UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,538 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,600 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. Visit www.uams.edu.