Announcing the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Perkins as Associate Chair for Ambulatory Care, Ambulatory Executive Medical Director, and Co-Director for Endocrine Neoplasia program

Dear Colleagues:

We are thrilled to announce that Jennifer Perkins, MD, MBA will be joining UCSF in August to become Associate Chair for Ambulatory Care and Population Health in the Department of Medicine, Ambulatory Executive Medical Director for UCSF Health, and Associate Director of our Destination Program in Endocrine Neoplasia. Jen is currently an Associate Professor at Duke and Medical Director for Access Services at Duke University Health System.

Jen was raised in New Hampshire and received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire. She received an MD from Dartmouth and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke. She completed residency in internal medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University and a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Vanderbilt. After joining Duke in 2009, she assumed several leadership roles, including Vice Chief for Clinical Affairs for the Division of Endocrinology, Senior Medical Director for Hospital-Based Clinics, and, since 2015, Medical Director for Access for Duke’s clinic system. Like UCSF, Duke has a large and growing network of affiliate sites, and part of Jen’s role has been to ensure that patients receive the care they need in a timely fashion at the most appropriate site.

In addition to Jen’s work in leadership, she is a sought-after clinician in her specialty of endocrine neoplasia. At Duke she worked closely with Julie Ann Sosa, now chair of our Department of Surgery, to build a highly regarded program. In her role as Associate Director of UCSF’s Endocrine Neoplasia program, she’ll be working with Dr. Sosa and our other surgical colleagues, as well as endocrinologists, radiation oncologists and others to enhance our already-renowned clinical and research programs for patients with tumors of the thyroid, adrenals, parathyroids, and other endocrine organs.

Jen is also an outstanding teacher; she received several teaching awards at Duke. Finally, she has contributed to the literature, with about 25 book chapters and articles, some of which describe the results of clinical research studies in endocrine neoplasia that she helped lead.

In her role as Associate Chair for Ambulatory Care and Population Health for the Department of Medicine and Ambulatory Executive Medical Director for UCSF Health, Jen’s focus will be on improving the quality, efficiency, and safety of, and access to, our ambulatory-based practices, as well as the satisfaction of both patients and clinicians. Her work comes in the context of UCSF Health’s burgeoning clinical network and our commitment to ensuring that our patients receive the care they need in the right place – whether at a core UCSF site, at one of our partner sites, or via telemedicine and digital health.

Jen will be moving to San Francisco with her husband Larry (who works in IT and product management) and her two children, Avery (12) and Miles (10).

We wish to thank Andy Gross for his many contributions as Associate Chair and Ambulatory Executive Medical Director over the past four years. Andy has been a passionate advocate for our patients and clinicians, and his efforts have markedly improved our ambulatory practices. Andy will continue in his role as clinic chief for the Division of Rheumatology, and he’ll take on a larger role seeing patients in our rheumatology practice. We look forward to his ongoing contributions and collaboration.

We also want to thank the members of two search committees: the one for the Associate Chair position (led by Michelle) and the other for the endocrine neoplasia leadership role, chaired by Michael German.

Please join us in welcoming Jen Perkins to UCSF, UCSF Health, and the Department of Medicine.

Sincerely,

Bob Wachter, Chair, Department of Medicine
Susan Smith, Chief Faculty Practice Officer and Senior Vice President, UCSF Health
Michelle Mourad, Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Value Improvement, Dept of Medicine