The leader of Alabama’s largest hospital system is leaving the Magic City.
Dr. Selwyn Vickers, senior vice president for medicine and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, took over as CEO of both the UAB Health System and the UAB/Ascension St. Vincent’s Alliance on Jan 1. Now, the 62-year-old is headed to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to serve as their new president and CEO.
A message to UAB employees noted that Vickers’ will join MSK on Sept. 12.
New leadership appointments for the hospital system and the medical school have yet to be announced.
Vickers, of Demopolis, became dean of the medical school in 2013 and was previously a member of the UAB surgical faculty from 1994 to 2006.
Vickers is an “internationally recognized pancreatic cancer surgeon, pancreatic cancer researcher, and pioneer in health disparities research,” according to his biography page with UAB and MSK. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, and has served on the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Board of Trustees and Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees. Vickers also served as president of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Southern Surgical Association, and the American Surgical Association.
“Dr. Vickers is an extraordinary surgeon-scientist with a proven track record of success in leading complex academic medical centers, building innovative academic and research programs, and strengthening clinical care. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a passion for unlocking treatments and cures for cancer,” Chair of the MSK Boards of Trustees and Governing Trustees Scott Stuart said in a press release. “Dr. Vickers is a charismatic and compassionate leader who is uniquely qualified to shepherd this great organization into the future.”
Vickers said in the press release, “For 135 years, MSK has set the standard for excellence in caring for patients and finding new treatments and cures for cancer, and it is arguably the world’s preeminent center for the training of the next generation of scientific and physician leaders.”
“The basic science programs of the Sloan Kettering Institute have led the world in cancer discovery science and translational research, and I am confident that MSK is on the path to tackle one of the world’s greatest threats to life, cancer. I am honored to have the opportunity to work with the pioneering researchers and dedicated doctors, nurses, and staff to build on MSK’s extraordinary legacy.”
UAB Health System is a $5 billion, 11-hospital system. UAB Hospital is the eighth-largest hospital and the fourth-largest public hospital in the U.S., with 1,207 beds.
UAB President Ray Watts said in a note to employees that he wishes Vickers “the very best.” “He helped recruit and retain incredible talent to advance our mission, and that fact is among the many reasons we remain in a position of strength to ensure a smooth transition as we continue to grow and thrive and serve the people who count on us.”
When Vickers took over as CEO at UAB Health System, he wrote in an guest column published on al.com:
I look to the themes of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail when I consider our path forward. Even sixty years later, his words resonate. “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation,” he wrote, “because the goal of America is freedom.”
I have a vision for Alabama, and the city of Birmingham specifically, to be a region that surprises and exceeds expectations of the rest of the country with our efforts to create lasting equity in education, health, disease prevention, and health care access.
