Andrew Edwards, M.D., will serve as interim department chair for the Department of Emergency Medicine, which became effective May 11.
Edwards is a 2000 graduate of the UAB School of Medicine, where he was class president, and completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Louisville, Kentucky. Following his residency, he joined the UAB faculty in 2003 as a member of the Department of Emergency Medicine and is currently serving as professor and vice chair for education.
While at UAB, he has been named Most Outstanding Mentor in the department numerous times; served as Residency Director; was a member of the steering committee for the UAB Healthcare Educators Academy; and most recently developed a new course for third year medical students on Disaster Preparedness and Pandemic Response, serving as course director and implementing the curriculum in conjunction with FEMA and other SOM leaders.
In terms of a permanent department chair, the timeline and search process will be aggressive. The national search will launch in early June, with a goal of having a permanent chair identified and signed by the end of the calendar year. The search committee will be chaired by Drs. Cheri Canon, chair of the Department of Radiology and Jeff Kerby, director of the Division of Acute Care Surgery. Drs. Canon and Kerby will be working with the search firm, Korn Ferry.