Isabella Grumbach, MD, PhD, professor and vice chair for research in the Carver College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, has been named interim chair of the department, effective Dec. 1, 2021.
Grumbach will fill the role being vacated by Dale Abel, MD, PhD, who is leaving Iowa at the end of December.
“I am pleased that Dr. Grumbach has agreed to accept this departmental leadership role,” says Brooks Jackson, MD, MBA, UI vice president for medical affairs and the Tyrone D. Artz Dean of the Carve College of Medicine. “She has outstanding administrative experience and the institutional knowledge and perspective to lead the Department of Internal Medicine during this transition period. I look forward to working with her as a member of our executive leadership team.”
Grumbach, who holds the Kate Daum Professorship, joined the Carver College of Medicine faculty in 2006 and serves in the Department of Internal Medicine’s cardiovascular medicine division. In addition to serving as vice chair for research since 2014, she has held several key leadership roles, including associate director of the department’s cardiovascular fellowship program and chief of cardiology at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Working with Abel, Grumbach has collaborated with faculty and staff to advance the department’s research mission and increase its external funding support. She also has led multiple committees to assess the department’s strengths and opportunities for growth, and she has guided these groups in implementing committee recommendations.
Grumbach’s cardiovascular research program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the VA, and the American Heart Association, focuses on mitochondrial dysfunction in vascular disease with a particular interest in restenosis after balloon angioplasty and cardiovascular effects of cancer therapies. She is a general cardiologist and cardio-oncologist and attends at UI Hospitals & Clinics and at the Iowa City VA Medical Center. Grumbach is an active member of several professional societies, including the American Heart Association, where she serves on science and programmatic leadership committees.
A national search for a new chair of the Department of Internal Medicine will begin in 2022, led by search committee co-chairs Janet Fairley, MD, and Colin Derdeyn, MD.