In Memoriam: Dr. Marcel Dvorak

A message from Benoit-Antoine Bacon, President and Vice-Chancellor and Gage Averill, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBC Vancouver.

We are pleased to announce that the UBC Board of Governors has accepted the President’s recommendation to appoint Dr. Sharmila Anandasabapathy as the Dean, Faculty of Medicine, and Vice-President, Health, for a five-year term commencing November 1, 2025.

Dr. Anandasabapathy is a Professor of Medicine in Gastroenterology and Vice President and Senior Associate Dean, Global Programs, at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Throughout her career, as a clinician, educator and researcher, Dr. Anandasabapathy has focused on the interface of translational science, cancer early detection, biomedical engineering, innovation and global health equity.

In her current role, Dr. Anandasabapathy oversees Baylor’s global programs, affiliations and partnerships. Much of this work seeks to develop novel, environmentally and culturally appropriate technologies and approaches to addressing global disease burdens. Dr. Anandasabapathy’s research focuses on bench-to-bedside development, validation and implementation of novel technologies for diagnosis of early gastrointestinal cancer. She is currently a Principal Investigator on four grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, and several clinical trials of novel, lower cost technologies for the early detection of gastrointestinal cancers. These trials are being conducted worldwide.

In addition to her primary appointment at Baylor, Dr. Anandasabapathy also holds an adjunct appointment in Bioengineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She holds a B.A. in English literature from Yale University and an M.D. with Distinction in Research from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine Training at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and her gastroenterology fellowship at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York.

“We live in extraordinary times, both in terms of the challenges to human health but also the capabilities of modern science and medicine,” says Dr. Anandasabapathy. “UBC is an extraordinary place: the culture, people, academic depth and breadth, and global vision. I am truly humbled by the opportunity to be a part of the UBC community and work collaboratively to deliver meaningful impact. I look forward to supporting our faculty, clinical faculty, staff and learners in an environment that is interdisciplinary, highly innovative and poised to address the most consequential challenges facing human health today.”

We would like to thank Dr. Dermot Kelleher for his extraordinary service to the university and the health community in British Columbia and across Canada since 2015. In collaboration with members of the Faculty and UBC community, the Government of B.C. and health partners, Dr. Kelleher led the recent expansion of medical and health professions training across the province, helping to increase the number of doctors and health professionals now practising in urban, rural, remote and Indigenous communities.

Over the past decade, Dr. Kelleher played a pivotal role in helping to cultivate and expand a vibrant and collaborative research ecosystem at UBC to address Canada’s most pressing health challenges. Through strategic collaborations with UBC researchers and leadership, industry, and Canadian and international partners, he helped to accelerate a new era of biomedical research and innovation in B.C. Among some of his key accomplishments, Dr. Kelleher worked with partners across the province to establish the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coordination Initiative, co-developed a first-of-its-kind in Canada School of Biomedical Engineering, and brought together an extraordinary coalition of provincial, national and international partners to create Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub.

We sincerely thank the members of the President’s Advisory Committee for their commitment and advice throughout the search process. We also extend our thanks to faculty, students, staff and members of the provincial health community for actively participating in the search process and providing valuable feedback to the committee.

Dr. Anandasabapathy truly embodies UBC’s focus on translational medicine and interprofessional care, and her delivery of health care throughout scores of sites across the globe speaks to a powerful sense of service and a commitment to equity. We look forward to working with her as she steps into the role of Dean, Faculty of Medicine, and Vice-President, Health. Please join us in welcoming her to the university.

This message was sent to all faculty, staff and learners in the Faculty of Medicine.