October 17 – Henri Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Omaida Velazquez, M.D., FACS, professor and chair, DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery at the Miller School, have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
Membership in the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service. The NAM announced the names of new members on October 17 at its annual meeting.
The academy recognized Dean Ford’s accomplishments, citing his “charismatic, mission-driven leadership.” The announcement added, “His extraordinary administrative skills catalyzed cultural change, financial turnaround, and innovative curricular reform, training the next generation of physicians and physician-scientists while promoting health equity.”
Under Dean Ford’s leadership, the Miller School has risen to No 1 in Florida and No. 40 in the nation for NIH funding and has been named by U.S. News & World Report as the sixth most diverse medical school. Over the past three years, he has guided the school’s education, clinical, and research programs through the COVID pandemic and has also been an active promoter of health equity initiatives. In 2020, he launched the Task Force on Racial Justice, committing the Miller School to embracing anti-racism practices and promoting diversity and inclusion.
“I am humbled by this incredible honor, which reflects the Miller School’s commitment to excellence that characterizes our faculty, staff, students, and trainees every day,” said Dean Ford. “We hold ourselves to the highest standard in medicine, while advancing our mission of transforming lives through education, research, innovation, and service.”
Omaida Velazquez, M.D., FACS
Dr. Velazquez is a renowned surgeon-scientist and the first Hispanic woman to lead a U.S. academic department of surgery. Recognizing the importance of her work, the National Academy of Medicine cited Dr. Velazquez “for her pioneering research that identified E-Selectin as a membrane-bound adhesion molecule that induces pro-angiogenesis and healing, in a vascular medicine field where previously, only soluble factors had been considered therapeutic candidates. Her groundbreaking work ushered a paradigm-shifting platform to reverse tissue damage by arterial occlusion or diabetes.”
For more than a decade, Dr. Velazquez has focused her transformational research on restoring blood flow to dying or damaged tissues affected by peripheral artery disease, diabetes, or other conditions.
“It is truly a privilege to join the growing number of academy members from the Miller School,” said Dr. Velasquez.
Dean Ford and Dr. Velazquez join the ranks of seven other University of Miami faculty who are academy members: University President and professor Julio Frenk; former UM president and professor Donna E. Shalala; Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genomics and director of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics; Diana D. Cardenas, M.D., M.H.A., professor emeritus; Mary Bartlett Bunge, Ph.D., professor emeritus; Guillermo J. Prado, Ph.D., vice provost for faculty affairs, dean of the Graduate School, and professor of nursing and health studies, public health sciences, and psychology; and Ralph L. Sacco, M.D., M.S., professor and chair of neurology and the Olemberg Family Chair of Neurological Disorders.
