Members of the Brown Community:

We are pleased to share that after a comprehensive search, Brown has appointed Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, an accomplished academic and health care leader and a physician-scientist who specializes in cardiovascular medicine, as the University’s next dean of medicine and biological sciences.

Dr. Jain serves currently as chief academic officer at University Hospitals health system in Cleveland and vice dean for medical sciences at Case Western Reserve University. In joining Brown, he will lead the Division of Biology and Medicine, which encompasses the Warren Alpert Medical School, four biological science departments, 14 clinical departments and two hybrid departments. He will also manage the medical school’s relationships with nine affiliated hospitals. His experience leading university-hospital partnerships in a first-rate health care system positions him for success at a moment when Brown, Lifespan and Care New England are working to create an integrated academic health system that will improve health care for all Rhode Islanders.

In his joint roles at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve, Dr. Jain developed strategies, priorities and programs to enhance biomedical research efforts across the health system and medical school. He oversees basic and clinical research, a portfolio of programs with nearly $177 million in annual research funding and more than 200 full-time staff, and one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs, with over 1,100 residents and fellows. He is a biomedical researcher internationally recognized for studies that established a central role for a family of genetic factors in cardiovascular biology, innate immunity and metabolism. He is also the founding director of Case Western Reserve’s Cardiovascular Research Institute, which established a robust cardiovascular research program that spanned basic and clinical research, secured over $60 million in research funding and is home to nearly 120 clinical trials involving 2,500 patients.

Dr. Jain has a long track record of training early-career researchers and is the recipient of mentoring awards from both Harvard Medical School and University Hospitals / Case Western Reserve. Earlier this year, he received the Distinguished University Professor Award, the highest honor that Case Western bestows upon a member of its professoriate. Since 2012, he has served as the chief scientific officer at the Harrington Discovery Institute, which supports breakthrough biomedical research. During his tenure, the institute has provided more than $6 million annually to scholars across North America and the United Kingdom, as well as support to physician-scientists in the Cleveland community. In 2019, he was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

Nationally, Dr. Jain’s contributions have been recognized through numerous honors including election to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the Association of University Cardiologists. In 2017, he and five colleagues founded the Physician-Scientist Support Foundation, a nonprofit that strives to build a sustainable and diverse physician-scientist workforce through financial and research support for discoveries that improve human health.

At Brown, Dr. Jain will serve as the strategic and academic leader of biological sciences programs, biomedical research and medical education. Key responsibilities include supporting expansion of research activity across the Division of Biology and Medicine, with a vision to advance Brown’s position in the top tier of medical schools and basic science and clinical departments. Integral to his role will be sustaining a culture of ongoing engagement with learners at every level, and promoting and enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion among all members of the community in the execution of education, research and clinical care missions.

Among the important priorities Dr. Jain will bring to Brown is advancing the medical school’s commitment to training physician-scientists — doctors who treat patients clinically and engage also in biomedical research. Increasing the representation of students and faculty from groups historically underrepresented in medicine and science will be a key priority for the dean, along with advancing efforts to ensure that medical school graduates deliver care to patients with a full understanding of social determinants of health and commitment to improving upon existing inequities in health care.

Dr. Jain earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Buffalo and his M.D. from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine. After finishing his residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, he completed fellowships in research and cardiovascular disease at Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

He will begin as dean effective March 1, 2022, serving as a member of the Provost’s Senior Academic Deans committee and of the President’s Cabinet. Dr. Jain will succeed Dr. Jack A. Elias, Brown’s dean of medicine and biological sciences for eight years, who is transitioning to the role of senior advisor for health affairs and working with University leadership to advance the development of Brown’s relationships with Lifespan and Care New England as efforts toward an integrated academic health system continue.

We are deeply grateful to the faculty, staff, administrators and students from the Warren Alpert Medical School and Brown’s Graduate School who served on the search committee. We are tremendously excited to bring aboard a leader with a clear and compelling vision for scientific discovery, excellence in biomedical education and world-class clinical care, and we hope you’ll join us in welcoming Dr. Jain to the Brown community.

Sincerely,

Christina H. Paxson
President

Richard M. Locke
Provost