After an extensive national search, the University of Iowa has named J. Brooks Jackson vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. An internationally recognized AIDS researcher, Jackson, 64, will lead UI Health Care, which is comprised of the Carver College of Medicine, UI Hospitals and Clinics, and UI Physicians.
Jackson has served as the vice president for health sciences and dean of the medical school at the University of Minnesota since 2014. In his role, he serves as the executive leader for the university’s academic health center, which coordinates care and learning across six schools and colleges in dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and veterinary medicine. Jackson also serves as chair of the University of Minnesota Health board of directors and the University of Minnesota Physicians board.
“Dr. Jackson is an experienced and innovative leader who can lead University of Iowa Health Care in continued success,” says UI President J. Bruce Harreld. “He has a proven track record of building research, education, and clinical programs, and he will bring his great passion and talent here to Iowa.”
Sue Curry, interim executive vice president and provost at the UI and a member of the search committee, says Jackson’s depth of knowledge about the unique challenges of academic medicine set him apart.
“Dr. Jackson is a collaborative leader and has created an impressive interprofessional approach to learning and solving health issues,” Curry says. “He has a collaborative leadership style and is focused on excellence, which reflects our Iowa culture.”
Jackson, board-certified in pathology and blood-banking, was the principal investigator of the multi-million-dollar National Institutes of Health–funded International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Network, which conducted landmark clinical trials for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and the treatment of pediatric HIV infection and complications. These trials led to the prevention of hundreds of thousands of infants from starting life with HIV infection and improved the treatment of those with HIV. From 2001 to 2014, Jackson led the pathology department at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He holds an MBA and MD from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and completed his residency in pathology at the University of Minnesota. He and his wife, Kathleen House, have three grown sons.
“I am excited and look forward to helping lead the University of Iowa medical school and health care system, which have great reputations in leading health advances, providing superb care, and training outstanding future physicians and scientists,” Jackson says.
Jackson succeeds Jean Robillard, who served as dean from 2003 to 2008 and from 2016 to the present, as well as vice president for medical affairs beginning in 2007. Robillard announced in September 2016 that he would step down once a new leader was named.
Jackson, whose appointment is pending approval from Board of Regents, State of Iowa, will receive an annual salary of $825,000.