University of Michigan Medical School, Chair, Department of Internal Medicine

The University of Michigan Board of Regents has approved the appointment of Dr. Timothy Blackwell, MD, as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS). 

Blackwell comes to UMMS from Vanderbilt University, where he served as the Rudy W. Jacobson Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, director of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine as well as the physician-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Lung Institute (VLI) and director of the Center for Lung Research. Blackwell joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1995 and has been director of the division since 2007.

Under Blackwell’s leadership as director of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, the division grew from 37 to 118 faculty members and advanced practice with more than $50 million annually of research funding. Blackwell was crucial in launching the Vanderbilt Lung Institute in 2020, and since then, the VLI has greatly expanded clinical services throughout the region, delivering integrated and personalized lung transplantation and advanced lung disease care and research.

Blackwell has been recognized for his achievements throughout his career. In 2013, he won the scientific achievement award from the American Thoracic Society. He was also named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017, where he was recognized for his distinguished contributions to pulmonary medicine.

Blackwell received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1984 and his MD from the University of Alabama in 1988. He trained in internal medicine at Washington University and completed a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at VUMC.

Jamie Sands and Natalie Leonhard led this search with Jane McInerney and Lily Sethares.