PublicationsClaire Pomeroy, M.D.
Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences, UC Davis
Dean, UC Davis School of Medicine
Q&A with Claire
What do you do?
As Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine, I serve as the CEO of the health system and am responsible for the School of Medicine, the Medical Center and the Faculty Practice Group.
I lead our team of five executives, about 6,400 employees, 700 faculty, 800 residents and fellows and 400 students who collectively contribute to our mission of "discovering and sharing knowledge to advance health." My job is to ensure that efforts in our four mission areas (education, clinical care, research and community engagement) are aligned to improve the health of our community in Northern California and beyond.
What do you enjoy about your work?
I am so proud of the contributions our health-system team makes to improve our community. I celebrate the values we hold: academic excellence, compassionate quality clinical care, innovation, collaboration, social justice, equality and diversity. It is exciting for me to see the leadership role we are taking in providing access to outstanding clinical care and reducing health disparities, training the health care workforce of the future, discovering new cures and therapies and partnering with our community.
Claire Pomeroy, M.D. is Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences at UC Davis and Dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine. She is an expert in infectious diseases and a professor of internal medicine and microbiology and immunology. She oversees the UC Davis Health System and all of its academic, research and clinical programs, including the 800-physician UC Davis Medical Group and the 577-bed acute-care UC Davis Medical Center hospital. With an operating budget of nearly $1 billion, patient visits of nearly 900,000, and more than $120 million in outside research funding, UC Davis Health System is a major contributor to the health care and economy of the Sacramento region.
Dr. Pomeroy joined UC Davis in 2003 as executive associate dean of the School of Medicine. In that role, she guided the development of a new strategic plan, enhanced the infrastructure for research and educational programs, and integrated the operations of the medical school and teaching hospital. Also, she founded the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis Health System.
Dr. Pomeroy leads an active research team studying host responses to infectious diseases. She has published over 100 articles and book chapters and edited two books.
She is an expert in HIV/AIDS and an advocate for patients living with HIV/AIDS. She has a special interest in health-care policy. She also has led efforts to advance electronic health records to improve health-care quality.
Dr. Pomeroy is a member of the Independent Citizens Oversight Commission that governs the stem-cell research institute approved by California voters in 2004.
Dr. Pomeroy received bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Michigan, then completed her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota. She also earned an M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky. She held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Kentucky prior to her move to UC Davis. At the University of Kentucky, she served as associate dean for research and informatics and as a member of the University Board of Trustees. She lives in Sacramento with her husband, William Preston Robertson, a filmmaker and author.