Ceremony
Claudia F. Lucchine i, M.D. of Frank and Charmaine Denius Distinguished Dean’s Chair in Medical Leadership
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 | 4 p.m.
Program
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Sharon L. Wood, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President and Provost, UT Austin
Reflections
Claudia F. Lucchinetti, M.D.
Dean, Dell Medical School
Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, UT Austin Professor, Department of Neurology
Presentation of Medallion and Closing Remarks
Sharon L. Wood
Claudia F. Lucchinetti, M.D.
Claudia F.Lucchinetti,
M.D.,serves as senior vice president for
medicalaffairs at The University of Texas at Austin and dean of Dell Medical School. In these roles, she leads the university’s comprehensive health care strategy and oversees Dell Med’s work in education, research and clinical care, including operations at UT Health Austin, Dell Med’s clinical practice.
A neurologist with specialization in neuroimmunology and experimental neuropathy, she is an internationally recognized expert in the clinical and neuropathological underpinnings of the broad spectrum of inflammatory demyelinating diseases, including multiple sclerosis.
She came to Dell Med from Mayo Clinic, where she was dean of clinical and translational science. She also served as chair of the Department of Neurology.
She earned her medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago and, after an internship at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, completed a neurology residency and fellowship in neuroimmunology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. As a Mayo Foundation Scholar, she trained in experimental neuropathy with Hans Lassmann, M.D., at the Brain Research Institute in Vienna.
Dean Lucchinetti’s research contributions include a landmark study describing four patterns of tissue damage in early multiple sclerosis, which suggested that MS lesions form differently among patient subgroups. This work markedly refined medicine’s understanding of the disease, indicating the potential for individualized therapy based on pathological subtype.
She has received significant research grant funding from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and the U.S. Department of Defense. She is a member of the Council of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 John Dystel Prize for MS Research. To date, she has authored more than 220 peerreviewed articles.
About the Frank and Charmaine Denius
Distinguished Dean’s Chair in Medical Leadership
When plans for a medical school at The University of Texas at Austin began to take shape, the Board of Regents approved the establishment of the Frank and Charmaine Denius Distinguished Dean’s Chair in Medical Leadership, the university’s first distinguished dean’s chair. The chair was established in 2011 by a generous gift from the Effie and Wofford Cain Foundation, for which Frank Denius served as president. In 2014, the endowment was transferred from the President’s Office to Dell Medical School.
Frank Denius was one of the 10 most highly decorated veterans of World War II, earning four Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts among other awards and recognition for his leadership in the European Theater and the D-Day invasion. He was also a 1949 graduate and devoted supporter of UT Austin, where he earned degrees in business and law. He was an early advocate for a medical school in Austin, beginning in the mid-1950s. He died in 2018 at the age of 93.
For him, Dell Med presented an opportunity to prepare 21st-century physicians to promote good health and personal responsibility while delivering first-rate medical research and medical care at a reasonable cost. Moreover, given the current and projected growth of Travis County, he believed community interest and engagement would help drive research and promote innovative models of care.
About the Cain Foundation
Established by Effie and Wofford Cain in 1952, the private, nonprofit Cain Foundation has grown to be an esteemed civic organization, supporting the arts and education throughout Texas. Frank Denius, the Cains’ nephew, became the foundation’s director in 1955 and executive committee chair in 1983. He served as the foundation’s president until his death.
The foundation’s generosity has touched every corner of the Forty Acres, including Dell Medical School, Texas Athletics, the Harry Ransom Center, the Blanton Museum of Art, the colleges of communication, liberal arts, natural sciences, public affairs, law, fine arts, business and pharmacy, and more.
Our Mission
Revolutionize how people get and stay healthy by:
• Improving health in our community as a model for the nation;
• Evolving new models of personcentered, multidisciplinary care that reward value;
• Accelerating innovation and research to improve health;
• Educating leaders who transform health care; and
• Redesigning the academic health environment to better serve society
Our Vision
A vital, inclusive health ecosystem:
• Vital: Vigorous, animated, full of life and energy, dynamic
• Inclusive: Open to everyone
• Ecosystem: The complex of a community and its environment functioning as a system