Endocrine Society member William T. Cefalu, MD, has been appointed chief scientific & medical officer (CSMO) of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and will formally begin serving on Feb. 20, 2017. He replaces another Society member, Robert E. Ratner, MD, who retired on Dec. 31, 2016, after serving as CSMO for nearly five years.
Since 2004, Cefalu has served as an associate editor of Diabetes and Diabetes Care, the ADA’s two premier journals focused on the physiology and pathophysiology of diabetes, and diabetes treatment and prevention, respectively. His tenure as editor-in-chief of Diabetes Care began in 2012. As CSMO, he will assist in the transition to new editorial leadership for Diabetes Care. Cefalu joins the ADA from Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., where he has been a professor since 2003. At Pennington Biomedical, he held the positions of associate executive director and chief scientific officer, and he currently serves as executive director and holds the George A. Bray, Jr. Endowed Super Chair in Nutrition.
“I am excited to join the Association in this notable role that can make a difference in the lives of the millions of people with diabetes and prediabetes—here in the U.S. and around the world,” said Cefalu. “Diabetes remains one of the world’s major chronic disease threats, and the Association has an incredible human responsibility to change the trajectory of the disease. As a Louisianian and a physician, I’ve seen diabetes impact my state firsthand. This new role is a tremendous opportunity for me to continue to significantly influence health, mortality and quality of life for so many, and I look forward to the challenges.”
In his 30-plus year career, Cefalu has been active in both clinical and basic science research, specifically interventions to improve the metabolic state of individuals with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and in the cellular mechanisms for insulin resistance. As executive director of Pennington Biomedical, Cefalu directs the Center’s basic, clinical and population science research functions, supports the training and educational missions of the Center, and aligns administrative functions in support of the Center’s research mission. He has also served as a mentor to medical and graduate students, medical residents, fellows and junior faculty throughout his more than 30-year career in academic medicine, one of his personal passions.
Notably, Cefalu has had research support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than 25 years and is the principal investigator for two NIH research centers. Since 2005, Cefalu has directed the NIH-funded Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center at Pennington Biomedical, as well as the NIH-funded Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center (LACaTS), a consortium of eight academic institutions and health care systems across the state of Louisiana. He has also been active on NIH study sections, is Pennington Biomedical’s site principal investigator of the NIH-funded GRADE study and serves as the principal investigator for several multi-site trials.
According to Society member Alvin C. Powers, MD, director of the Vanderbilt University Diabetes Center, the ADA is very fortunate to have a physician and scientist of Dr. Cefalu’s caliber join as its scientific and medical leader. “Dr. Cefalu has made major contributions to diabetes research and care,” he says, “and his leadership will bolster our comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, evidence-based healthcare recommendations for people with diabetes.”
Cefalu earned his BS from Southeastern Louisiana University and his MD from LSU Heath Science Center, New Orleans. He completed an internal medicine residency and served as chief resident at the University of California, Irvine, Veterans Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System. He completed a fellowship in Endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, Center for Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition, Cefalu is widely published in journals, books and book chapters, including more than 280 manuscripts and 25 book chapters. He has also served as the editor of five books on the management of diabetes.
Loading ...