In a ceremony that blended the flavors of his Irish roots and his adopted home of Memphis, Peter Buckley was formally installed as the 11th chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Nov. 4. A first for UTHSC, the investiture was held at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis. During the event, the authority and symbols of the office were officially conferred on Buckley, who began his tenure at UTHSC in February.
Legislators, community leaders, clinical and academic partners, members of the UT Board of Trustees and the UTHSC Advisory Board, alumni, friends of the university, faculty, staff and students attended the program that included performances by musicians from Memphis’ Stax Music Academy and a lively trio playing Irish music.
“This is not about me,” Buckley says. “It’s really about our institution and our noble mission.”
That mission reaches statewide, he says.“Memphis is our proud home, but we are truly across the state,” he says.
UT System President Randy Boyd and Buckley spent Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 traveling the state on the “Everywhere You Look, UTHSC” tour.
“One of the things this tour was designed to do was to bring awareness of UTHSC across the state,” Boyd says. “We want to make an impact on the state by helping transform the health of people across the state. If anyone can make an impact, it is the Health Science Center. Not only do we have the ability, we have the desire.”
New Interim Leadership Named
The UTHSC College of Medicine, led by Executive Dean Scott Strome, has new leadership at its Chattanooga and Knoxville campuses.
James Haynes has been named dean of the UTHSC College of Medicine- Chattanooga. Previously, Haynes served as the interim dean in Chattanooga since December 2021.
Additionally, Robert Craft has been named the interim dean of UTHSC’s College of Medicine in Knoxville. Craft also serves as senior vice president and chief academic officer of the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where he completed his residency in 1993.
Happy 50th!
The UTHSC College of Health Professions celebrated its 50th anniversary Nov. 18 with events at several locations in Memphis. The college includes the Departments of Diagnostics and Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Audiology/Speech Pathology, and the Division of Regenerative and Rehabilitative Sciences.
At the same time, the Medical Laboratory Science program in the Department of Diagnostic and Health Sciences celebrated its 100th anniversary. That program, which trains laboratory scientists, has sent more than 2,000 graduates to work in labs across the country in its 100 years.
