Mayor Welcomes UCSF Fresno’s First Endowed Chair to the City of Fresno

By Cara Peracchi Douglas, Director, Public Affairs and Communications, UCSF Fresno Phone: 559.243.3606 E-mail: [email protected], on September 09, 2002

The University of California, San Francisco, Fresno Medical Education Program (UCSF Fresno) along with Mayor Alan Autry will welcome its first Endowed Chair, Michael W. Peterson, MD, to the City of Fresno tonight, September 9, 2002, at City Hall from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. Michael W. Peterson, MD, joins UCSF Fresno from the University of Iowa, where he served as Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. “Having an Endowed Chair allows UCSF Fresno to recruit some of the best and the brightest physicians in the nation to Fresno,” said Deborah C. Stewart, MD, and associate dean of UCSF Fresno. “We are thrilled that Michael W. Peterson, MD, will lead UCSF Fresno’s largest program, the Department of Medicine. In addition, he is presently establishing a research program supported by the National Institutes of Health at UCSF Fresno.”

Time:    5:30pm to 7:00pm

Date:     Monday, September 9

Place:    City Hall, Second Floor Lobby 2600 Fresno Street

Event Highlights include :

Michael W. Peterson, MD

  • Central California Valley Medical Center (CCVMC) Endowed Chair in Medicine presents plans for establishing the first research program to be supported by the National Institutes of Health Program at UCSF Fresno

Deborah C. Stewart, MD

  • Associate Dean, UCSF Fresno addresses significance of endowed chairs in medical schools and the benefit they add to the City of Fresno and its citizens

Alan Autry, Mayor

  • Officially welcomes Michael W. Peterson and his family to the City of Fresno

Background

Traditionally, the most prestigious medical schools in the nation have endowed chairs. When a professorship is endowed, a medical school has a competitive edge to recruit the brightest minds in medicine. In addition, it adds significant credibility to a medical education program, thus enabling it to recruit a higher caliber medical student. To endow a chair at the UCSF School of Medicine, a minimum of  $500,000 is required. CCVMC endowed the first chair at UCSF Fresno with a $1 million gift. For more information, contact Cara Peracchi Douglas at 559.288.3257.