University of Iowa leaders today named Debra A. Schwinn, M.D., as the next dean of the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

Schwinn currently serves as professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, the Allan J. Treuer Endowed Professor of Anesthesiology, and adjunct professor of Pharmacology and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Schwinn’s appointment will be effective Nov. 1, 2012, pending approval by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa. Donna Hammond, Ph.D., will continue to serve as acting dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine until Schwinn’s arrival. Schwinn succeeds Paul Rothman, M.D., who began serving in his new position at Johns Hopkins University on July 1.

Schwinn is a nationally known investigator in molecular pharmacology with active funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, and numerous other national and international organizations. She holds four U.S. patents and one Australian patent.

“Dr. Schwinn is a highly successful clinician, educator, and researcher. We are absolutely delighted that she has agreed to join the faculty of the University of Iowa and to lead the world-renowned UI Carver College of Medicine,” says UI Provost Barry Butler.

Schwinn has served on numerous national and international committees and boards, including as 2012-2014 chair of the Board of Trustees for the International Anesthesiology Research Society. Schwinn is the author or co-author on more than 180 journal articles and book chapters; the editor of two books; and served as a reviewer on many journals and on the editorial boards of several journals. During her academic career she has received many honorary awards, including several teaching awards.

“As chair of anesthesia and pain medicine at Washington, Dr. Schwinn led the anesthesiology clinical services at four teaching hospitals,” says Jean Robillard, M.D, vice president for medical affairs, UI Health Care. “I am very impressed by her background and consider her ideally suited to be our next dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine.”

Schwinn received her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine, completed a residency in anesthesiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a clinical fellowship in cardiac anesthesiology (including training in transesophageal echocardiography) at Duke University Medical Center. She completed a research fellowship in the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine at Duke, as well as the national Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.

Prior to joining the University of Washington, she was on the Duke faculty for 18 years. As a faculty member at Duke, Schwinn also directed the school’s Third Year Program (research), and was a planning team member organizing a new Duke-sponsored graduate medical school for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore.