Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, a physician, pioneering cancer researcher and successful biotechnology industry executive, became chancellor of UCSF on Aug. 3, 2009.
Desmond-Hellmann is UCSF’s ninth chancellor and the first woman appointed to the top leadership post of the health sciences university. She holds an appointment as Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor. Desmond-Hellmann succeeded J. Michael Bishop, MD, a Nobel laureate who served as UCSF chancellor for 11 years.
Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH
Desmond-Hellmann signs the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Book of Members, a tradition dating back to 1780, after being inducted into the academy at a ceremony in October 2010.
Born in Napa, California, as one of seven siblings, Desmond-Hellmann calls herself a “small-town girl” at heart. She was raised in Reno, Nevada, where she spent time as a youngster in her father’s pharmacy, listening to his daily chats with family doctors, which sparked her interest in a medical career.
After earning a bachelor of science degree in premedicine and a medical degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, Desmond-Hellmann arrived at UCSF in 1982 as an intern, and said that the experience transformed her life.
Desmond-Hellmann completed her clinical training at UCSF, where she met her husband, and then served on the UCSF faculty as associate adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. She spent two years as visiting faculty at the Uganda Cancer Institute, studying HIV/AIDS and cancer.
Before rejoining UCSF as chancellor, she served as president of product development at Genentech, a position she held from March 2004 through April 2009. In this role, she was responsible for Genentech’s preclinical and clinical development, process research and development, business development, and product portfolio management. During her time at Genentech, several of the company’s patient therapeutics (Lucentis, Avastin, Herceptin, Tarceva, Rituxan and Xolair) were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and the company became the nation’s No. 1 producer of anticancer drug treatments.
In November 2009, Forbes magazine named Desmond-Hellmann as one of the world’s seven most “powerful innovators,” calling her “a hero to legions of cancer patients.” The seven were lauded for their curiosity, empathy and leadership.
Her return to UCSF in August 2009 to take the helm was like a homecoming to the University that helped shape her, both personally and professionally, and to the San Francisco neighborhood where her father’s family first settled when they immigrated to the United States.
One of her favorite inspirational quotes from American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison sums up her own life: “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
Desmond-Hellmann is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, and earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.
Photo by Elisabeth Fall/fallfoto.com