The ceremony provides a forum to reflect and recognize RUSM’s extraordinary past successes, future opportunities in the years ahead, and reaffirms the continuing vitality of the Ross University School of Medicine community. All members of RUSM’s family are welcome and will be celebrated during the event, including colleagues, faculty, students and alumni.
CONVOCATION SPEAKER: This year’s convocation message will be delivered by Dr. Griffin Rodgers. Dr. Rodgers is the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, where he provides scientific leadership and manages a staff of over 600 employees and a budget of over $2.0 billion. Dr. Rodgers received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from Brown University, and performed his residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital and the Washington University School of Medicine. His fellowship training in hematology was in a joint program of the NIH with George Washington University and the Washington Veterans Administration Medical Center. In addition, he earned an MBA, with a focus on the business of medicine/science, from The Johns Hopkins University. As a research investigator, Dr. Rodgers is widely recognized for his contributions to the development of the first effective—and FDA approved—therapy for sickle cell anemia. He was a principal investigator in clinical trials to develop therapy for patients with sickle cell disease and also performed basic research that focused on understanding the molecular basis of how certain drugs induce gamma-globin gene expression. More recently, he and his collaborators have reported on a modified blood stem-cell transplant regimen that is highly effective in reversing sickle cell disease in adults, and is associated with relatively low toxicity.
The 2018 Convocation ceremony is from 10 am-12 pm EST on Saturday, October 20 at Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, TN. St. Kitts colleagues will join via livestream.