Conversation with Drs. Renee Navarro and David Skorton - July 16

Join J. Renee Navarro, MD, PharmD, vice chancellor of diversity and outreach at UCSF, and David J. Skorton, MD, president and CEO of the AAMC, for a candid conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic medicine, and the role of the AAMC in leading and serving the academic medicine community. 

Participants will have an opportunity to pose questions in a moderated questions and answer session. 

J. Renee Chapman Navarro, Pharm D, MD

Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity and Outreach Officer, Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco

As the inaugural vice chancellor for diversity and outreach at University of California, San Francisco Renee Chapman Navarro, Pharm D, MD provides strategic vision and leadership to build a broadly diverse faculty, student, trainee and staff community, to nurture a culture that is welcoming and supportive, and to engage diverse ideas for the provision of culturally competent education, discovery and patient care.  She describes this work as “the strategic disruption of the status quo”.  

Dr. Navarro holds a Pharm D from the University of the Pacific and a MD from the University of California, San Francisco.  A board-certified anesthesiologist, she joined the Anesthesia Faculty and progressed rapidly to leadership positions and promotion to professor.  She served as the Medical Director of Perioperative Services for 10 years and was elected by her peers to serve as the Chief of the Medical Staff.  She was selected by the dean to serve as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs within the school of medicine, where she championed the needs of women and underrepresented minorities.    

Dr. Navarro has served as an examiner for the American Board of Anesthesia. She also served as a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Committee on Professional Diversity, the ASA Professional Issues Education Committee and the Women in Anesthesia Committee. Dr. Navarro is committed to public service, serving on the San Mateo Commission on the Status of Women, the San Mateo Commission on Disabilities and was the founding Chair of the Group on Women in Medicine and Science for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  She is currently the chair of the AAMC’s Group on Diversity and Inclusion and is leading the UCSF Action Collaborative to address gender harassment and sexual misconduct in academic medicine in response to the National Academies 2018 Report.  

The Office of Diversity and Outreach has significantly advanced diversity and inclusion within the campus community and was awarded the 2016 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from Insight into Diversity Magazine.   

Her scholarship has focused on STEMM diversity and continuous quality improvement in health equity for patients at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH) and Trauma Center. She was honored for her leadership and advocacy on behalf of underserved patient populations in San Francisco by Mayor Willie Brown, with a proclamation designating “J. Renee Navarro Day in San Francisco”.  

David J. Skorton, MD

AAMC President and CEO

David J. Skorton, MD, is president and CEO of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), which represents the nation’s medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies.  

Dr. Skorton began his leadership of the AAMC in July 2019 after a distinguished career in government, higher education, and medicine. 

Most recently, Dr. Skorton served as the 13th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, where he oversaw 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and education programs. Prior to that, he served as president of two universities: Cornell University (2006 to 2015) and the University of Iowa (2003 to 2006), where he also served on the faculty for 26 years and specialized in the treatment of adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease.  A pioneer of cardiac imaging and computer processing techniques, he also was co-director and co-founder of the University of Iowa Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic. 

A Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University, Dr. Skorton is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He also served on the AAMC Board of Directors from 2010 to 2013 and was the charter president of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs Inc., the first group organized specifically to accredit human research protection programs.   

Throughout his career, Dr. Skorton has focused on issues of diversity and inclusion.  A nationally recognized supporter of the arts and humanities, as well as an accomplished jazz musician and composer, Dr. Skorton believes that many of society’s thorniest problems can only be solved by combining the sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities. 

Dr. Skorton earned his BA and MD degrees from Northwestern University. He completed his medical residency and fellowship in cardiology and was chief medical resident at the University of California, Los Angeles.   He is married to Robin Davisson, PhD, an award-winning scientist, who is a professor of molecular physiology at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College, as well as a professor of medicine at Georgetown University and an emerging visual artist.

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