Rutgers names nationally recognized clinician in obesity as new chair of medicine

Deal! Concept of collaboration in medicine. Close up photo of two doctors' handshake on gray background

Dr. Jeanne Clark, a board-certified internal medicine physician with extensive research experience and a nationally renowned expert in the epidemiology and treatment of obesity, will join Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as the Henry Rutgers Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine in October, according to a Thursday announcement.

Clark joins Rutgers from Johns Hopkins University, where she served as the Frederick L. Brancati M.D. Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, and director of general internal medicine, for the past decade.

“The appointment of Dr. Clark, a nationally renowned clinician-scientist committed to the study of epidemiology and treatment of obesity, and its complications, especially Type 2 diabetes, greatly enhances the leadership of our Department of Medicine,” Amy Murtha, dean of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said. “Dr. Clark is also an esteemed graduate of our medical school, and we proudly welcome her home to continue her longtime commitment to groundbreaking research and the advancement of evidence-based medical care that improves lives.”

Regarding her vision for the Department of Medicine, Clark discussed initiatives to drive its success.

“The Department of Medicine at Rutgers is poised to help the medical school become the leading learning health system in New Jersey and to achieve the ‘quintuple aim’ of enhancing patient experience, improving clinical outcomes, reducing per capita costs of health care, improving provider well-being and achieving health equity for the state’s residents,” she said. “To do this, the department will grow its translational research and embed it into our clinical settings to enable transformational discoveries that can ultimately improve every aspect of our care of patients and the health of all our communities. Further, I see the Department of Medicine becoming a leading home for internal medicine education of medical students, residents and clinical and research fellows.”

A general internist with an active primary care practice, Clark has extensively studied obesity, Type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, including how race, socioeconomic and geographical health inequities impact diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.

The author of more than 200 articles and four book chapters, Clark is a longstanding co-investigator and medical safety officer of the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network, which she plans to continue.

Clark received her medical degree from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1992 and completed a residency in internal medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where she also was chief resident. She completed a clinical research fellowship in general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins, where she received her master’s of public health and joined the faculty in 2000. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in French from Johns Hopkins, where she graduated cum laude.