School of Medicine

Landon King, M.D., named executive vice dean for the School of Medicine

In December, Dean/CEO Paul Rothman, M.D., announced that Landon S. King, M.D., has assumed additional duties as the School of Medicine's executive vice dean. Dr. King is currently the David Marine Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and vice dean for research.

Since becoming vice dean for research in September 2011, he has worked closely with leaders throughout the university to advance numerous aspects of basic and translational research at the School of Medicine. Among them is a collaborative effort to assess core resources and research infrastructure, while he is also overseeing research administration, policy coordination, and the identification and coordination of technology transfer opportunities.

As executive vice dean, he will assist Dean Rothman in overseeing operations and program development in the School of Medicine.

Dr. King received his medical degree in 1989 from Vanderbilt University and first came to Hopkins that year as an intern on the Osler medical service. As a postdoctoral fellow and later, after joining the faculty as an assistant professor in 1997, he undertook important studies of water channels in the lung with 2003 Nobel Laureate Peter Agre. In 2005, he was selected to be the Director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2006 for work on aquaporin water channels. His work currently focuses on mechanisms regulating repair of lung injury.

Landon's wife, Kimberly Peairs, M.D., is a graduate of the School of Medicine, class of 1992.

Alumni Update

Catching up with Frank Mitchell, Med '55, the "godfather" of trauma services

Frank Mitchell, 82, is considered a pioneer in emergency medical services. Three years ago, the elite Level 1 trauma center at the University of Missouri was named after him - the Frank L. Mitchell Jr. MD Trauma Center.

His career began with the University of Missouri Hospital back in 1959 as a resident. In those days, before ambulances and trained paramedics, funeral home hearses doubled as transport for those who suffered heart attacks or were injured in falls or car crashes.

Excelsior Springs, Missouri native, Dr. Mitchell, earned his bachelor's degree and a two-year medical degree at MU before completing a four-year medical degree at Hopkins. While a resident at Vanderbilt University, he was drafted into the Army to serve as a trauma surgeon in Germany. By then, the Army was using medical evacuation helicopters.

With his new-found experience in emergency care, he enlisted the help of the MU College of Engineering, and together they rigged a vehicle into suitable transportation for patients. Next came the addition of trained medical staff and a radio communication system.

Establishment of a fleet of three Staff for Life helicopters is also part of his decades-long career at University Hospital.

In 1979, the American College of Surgeons started to focus on trauma, the leading cause of death for people younger than 45 then and now. Mitchell wrote the earliest guidelines for trauma center verification programs and later served as chairman of a verification committee.

Dr. Mitchell and his wife have three sons, one of whom is a physician, and nine grandchildren, including a grandson also working in trauma care, continuing a long family business.

Mitchell's father was a physician, and his grandfather was a doctor in rural Pennsylvania.

Mitchell's decades-long career changed emergency care in Columbia, but he's pragmatic about his work.

"You make a lot of friends. You make a lot of people happy. You do what's best for the patient, and if you do that, all will come out OK."

Student News

Third-year student, Atul Nakhasi, named national chair of the student section of the AMA

Atul Nakhasi was recently selected the new national chair of the student section of the American Medical Association, comprised of about 47,000 medical students. He is also one of the founders of the first student section of the AMA on the School of Medicine campus.

In his new role, he will be meeting with state legislators and members of Congress and lobbying actively in Washington, D.C., as a representative for the issues that affect medical students. Pressing concerns that he plans to address once in office include the rise of medical student debt, the stagnant number of residency positions, threats from impending funding cuts to Medicare and the lack of student activism in the AMA.

"Atul's leadership skills are built on a history of bringing people together," says Kevin Contrera, president of the AMA Medical Student Section at Johns Hopkins. "I expect Atul will work to unify the voices of our 47,000 members, so that our impact is one of value and purpose."

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