Endowed Chairs

The Edgar B. Jackson Chair for Clinical Excellence and Diversity

Present Occupant: Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, MD
University Hospitals

The Edgar B. Jackson Jr., MD, Endowed Chair for Clinical Excellence and Diversity, created in 2004, is the nation's only permanent, endowed faculty position in an academic medical center in the U.S. created to promote faculty diversity. Our goal is to inspire underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in medicine, and encouraging them to do so at UH. The effort has the aims:

• To motivate underrepresented minority students (URM) from middle school through college toward careers in medicine with a special emphasis on black males.
• To recruit, support and challenge rising physicians with mentorship, hands-on leadership opportunities, financial incentives, peer groups and professional recognition.
• To promote cultural competency throughout the institution that insures all providers, trainees and staff intentionally challenge unconscious bias that may result in suboptimal care delivered to our patients.

The William H. Weir, MD Chair of Reproductive Biology

Present Occupant: Sam Mesiano, PhD
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Dr. William H. Weir established a flourishing gynecological service at Lakeside Hospital in the early 1900s. He was a member of the first medical advisory board to the Independent Maternal Health Association (MHA, est. 1928), which provided married women with birth control-then an illicit service, unavailable from most medical facilities and physicians. In 1936, Dr. Weir served as the director of the Gynecology Service, of the newly integrated Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at MacDonald House. Dr. Weir served as director until 1950.