University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Chair of Medicine

The University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine announced Dr. Susan B. Gurley, MD, PhD as the Chair of Medicine.

Gurley joins the Keck School from the Oregon Health & Science University where she is a Professor with Tenure, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. She has served as Division Head of Nephrology and Hypertension since 2018; Associate Director of the MD/PhD Program since 2020; and Interim Chair of the Department of Medicine since 2021. Prior to her time at OHSU, Gurley served in several leadership roles at the Duke University School of Medicine including Associate Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Diversity in the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Renal Section at the Durham VA Health Care System.

Gurley is an actively funded investigator who has been awarded both clinical and teaching grants. Her research focuses on unraveling mechanisms underlying the most common etiologies of kidney failure in the developed world – diabetic kidney disease and hypertension – and leverages the power of gene-targeting in mice and mouse models to investigate the renin-angiotensin system. She has a long-standing commitment to supporting scientists and clinicians who are underrepresented in science and medicine. Gurley currently serves as a member of the Pathobiology of Kidney Disease Study Section for NIDDK and is on the editorial board of several journals, currently an associate editor of Diabetes.

Gurley earned a BA in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Mississippi, and she received her medical degree from the Washington University of St. Louis. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center, followed by a clinical fellowship and a research fellowship, both in nephrology, at Duke University Medical Center. She is board-certified in internal medicine and in nephrology.

David Bellshaw and Courtney Wilk-Mandel led this search with Evan Layne and Cara Meyers.