Sharon Anderson, M.D. R '82

Dean, OHSU School of Medicine

Executive Vice President, OHSU

OHSU President Joseph E. Robertson appointed Sharon Anderson, M.D. R '82, as dean of the OHSU School of Medicine. She assumed her role on July 5, 2017, succeeding Interim Dean John Hunter.

Dr. Anderson is a professor and served first as interim and then chair of the Department of Medicine beginning in 2013. She has dedicated her career to patient care at OHSU and the VA Portland Health Care System, research in kidney disease and teaching, winning multiple faculty teaching awards and the Dean's Award for exceptional service in 2001 and again in 2014.

Dr. Anderson came to OHSU from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in 1991 as a staff physician in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and in the Nephrology Section at the Portland VA Medical Center.

She quickly moved into leadership roles, becoming associate head in 1994 and then interim head in 1998 of the OHSU Division of Nephrology and Hypertension as well as chief of the Nephrology Section at the VA from 1995 to 2004. From 2003 to 2007, she served as vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Medicine, concurrently serving as associate dean for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs in the School of Medicine from 2004 to 2007. She spent the next six years as vice chair for VA Affairs in the Department of Medicine and chief of the Division of Hospital and Specialty Medicine in the VA, before becoming interim chair of medicine in 2013.

The Department of Medicine is the largest in the School of Medicine, with more than 260 primary faculty members, 11 divisions, and more than 300 affiliate community faculty members. More than 200 residents and fellows are housed within the department's educational programs, and its faculty members are deeply involved in all aspects of the School of Medicine education programs. The department's research funding is the largest in the school.

Dr. Anderson received her M.D. from Louisiana State University Medical Center. After internal medicine residency training at OHSU, she completed her clinical nephrology training at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (formerly Beth Israel Hospital), and her research training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

She has published more than 150 chapters, books and scholarly articles and received dozens of awards and grants.

As dean, Dr. Anderson will oversee nearly 2,500 faculty representing 20 clinical departments — including the newest clinical department, the Charles T. Dotter Department of Interventional Radiology — seven basic science departments and multiple research centers and institutes.