FRESNO – Greg Hendey, MD, FACEP, will be named as the chair holder of the Gene W. Kallsen, MD, Endowed Chair in Emergency Medicine at UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program during a reception on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the UCSF Fresno Center for Medical Education and Research, 155 N. Fresno St. Dr. Hendey currently is chief of emergency medicine at UCSF Fresno.
Endowed chairs, associated with the most prestigious educational institutions, are held by distinguished faculty. To establish an endowed chair, monies are raised and invested for the purpose of funding the position in perpetuity. The Gene W. Kallsen, MD, Endowed Chair in Emergency Medicine enables UCSF Fresno to continue recruiting the finest physicians and medical educators to head its emergency medicine program for years to come.
UCSF Fresno’s latest endowed chair is named in honor of Dr. Kallsen who is well known and highly respected for his contributions to emergency medicine. Kallsen has dedicated nearly 40 years to UCSF Fresno - first as an emergency medical resident and then as a faculty member and leader and ambassador for 35 years. During its 40 year history, the emergency medicine program at UCSF Fresno has graduated nearly 300 residents. All but 20 have known Dr. Kallsen as a faculty member.
Kallsen’s distinguished career includes more than ten years as Fresno County’s first Emergency Medical Services director, two years as chair of the California Commission of Emergency Medical Services, 23 years as chief of UCSF Fresno’s Emergency Medicine Department, five years as assistant dean at UCSF Fresno, over 25 years in leadership roles with the Central California Faculty Medical Group and facilitating the emergency medicine department transition from University Medical Center to Community Regional Medical Center. Dr. Kallsen and wife Pam Kallsen are generous supporters of the endowed chair with their personal gift of $100,000.
Hendey is the first to hold the new Kallsen Endowed Chair. He is board certified in emergency medicine and is a full professor with the UCSF School of Medicine. He has been on faculty at UCSF Fresno since 1993, and currently serves as the chief of emergency medicine, practicing at Community Regional Medical Center, one of California’s busiest emergency departments. He is a member of the UCSF Academic Senate, and is working to create a UCSF Academy of Medical Educators at UCSF Fresno.
Hendey is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching at UCSF; the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award, the Outstanding Faculty Teacher Award, selected by UCSF Fresno house staff, and the UCSF Fresno Outstanding Faculty Research Award.
He is the author of numerous publications, has delivered hundreds of presentations nationally and internationally, and devoted much attention to reviewing research proposals. He is an avid researcher whose areas of interest include: prevention and treatment of acute lung injury, selective radiography and prehospital care, among others areas.
Hendey completed residency training in emergency medicine at UCLA Medical Center, where he served as chief resident from 1992 to 1993. He completed an American College of Emergency Physicians, Emergency Medicine Foundation Teaching Fellowship in Dallas and a program for Chiefs of Clinical Services at the Harvard School of Public health in Boston. He earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he received a Storer Foundation Scholarship and graduated magna cum laude.
He is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, American Academy of Emergency Physicians, Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine and is an editor for the Annals of Emergency Medicine. He serves as the chair of the executive committee for CRMC and is on the Board of Directors for Community Medical Centers and Central California Faculty Medical Group.
The Gene W. Kallsen, MD, Endowed Chair in Emergency Medicine is the most recent at UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program. In 2012, the Steven N. Parks Endowed Chair in Surgery was established and James W. Davis, MD, FACS, was named the first chair holder. In 2002, Michael W. Peterson, MD, was named the first Central California Valley Medical Center Endowed Chair in Medicine (known today as Valley Medical Foundation Professor of Medicine).
The Kallsen Endowed Chair is made possible thanks to lead donor Community Regional Medical Center and other key contributors, including Central California Faculty Medical Group, American Ambulance, the UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine Department and other individual donations, including the Kallsens. In total, nearly $800,000 has been raised toward the $1 million goal. This level of an endowment provides a stable, permanent source of funding and supports pioneering basic science investigations, clinical research and educational initiatives, among other activities with the annual payout providing for emergency medicine and research related activities in the UCSF Fresno Department of Emergency Medicine.
