Appointment of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

TO:All UMMC Faculty, Staff and Students
FROM:Dr. Alan Jones, Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs
SUBJECT: Appointment of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Sara Gleason, professor and interim chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, as assistant vice chancellor for clinical affairs, effective July 1, 2023.

Dr. Gleason brings to the position extensive experience, and not just in medicine. She joined the UMMC family in 2016 as interim director of psychiatric emergency services after serving as a staff psychiatrist at the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center and at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. She also worked as a psychiatrist for the Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System.

Before enrolling in UMMC’s School of Medicine in 2000, she graduated from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs in 1989 and the University of Michigan Law School in 1992, then practiced as an associate attorney at a Boston law firm. She was a teacher at Jackson Preparatory School before a career change to medicine, attending Millsaps College to complete premedical coursework.

Dr. Gleason completed her psychiatry residency at UMMC and was named associate professor in 2016 and professor in 2020. Her departmental leadership positions include serving as deputy vice chair of clinical affairs, vice chair for faculty development and executive vice chair. She currently serves as director of community engagement for UMMC’s Center for Innovation and Discovery in Addictions and as a psychiatry consultant at Methodist Rehabilitation Center and for the Asylum Hill Research Consortium.

She is a core faculty member in the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, serving as interim director for a short period in 2022. Dr. Gleason became interim chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in April 2022.

Her newest leadership role as the key partner between administrative and physician leadership will allow her to drive change in areas of strategic importance to the Medical Center, particularly in the efficiency of its clinical mission. She’s passionate about greater access to care and making a difference in achieving excellence in hospital-based operations, in ways that are compatible with our research and education missions.

Through her experiences in the delivery of psychiatric services, Sara has collaborated with faculty, trainees and staff from other departments on a regular basis. Her outpatient duties have driven home the importance of a continuum of care from the inpatient to ambulatory worlds. Her law and business administration degrees, she received an executive MBA from Millsaps, have prepared her for the financial challenges of academic medicine and health care delivery.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Gleason as she prepares to assume her new role.

Thank you.