Pilitsis Named Dean of the Schmidt College of Medicine

During today’s Board of Trustees meeting, I announced that Julie G. Pilitsis, M.D., Ph.D., will join FAU as our new dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Dr. Pilitsis joins us from Albany Medical College in New York, where she is the division chief of functional neurosurgery and chair and professor of the basic neuroscience department. Albany Medical College is an integral component of the Albany Medical Center, the only academic center in northeastern New York and western New England.

I’d like to thank Dr. Stella Batalama for chairing this very important search committee; Dr. Michael Dennis, chair of our College of Medicine’s advisory board and former FAU trustee, who served on the search committee; and all of the search committee members for their efforts to identify our medical school’s new dean. I also would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Sarah Wood for serving as interim dean of the Schmidt College of Medicine.

Dr. Pilitsis will build upon the success of the Schmidt College of Medicine’s innovative medical student and graduate medical education programs in partnership with a consortium of five Palm Beach County hospitals. In addition, she will spearhead the college’s vibrant research focus areas, which include healthy aging; geriatrics and neuroscience; chronic pain and opioid use; and genomics and precision medicine.

Dr. Pilitsis has made significant contributions at the national level in medicine, education, advocacy and research, and will be an outstanding leader and mentor for our students, faculty and staff. We look forward to officially welcoming her to FAU in February.