The University of Oklahoma announced today the appointment of Ian F. Dunn, M.D., FACS, FAANS, as executive dean of the OU College of Medicine, pending OU Board of Regents’ approval. Dunn will begin serving in his new position on Jan. 15.

Amanda Janitz, Ph.D., MPH, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Hudson College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma, was awarded an approximate $400,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. This two-year developmental research grant is dedicated to a vital research study aimed at identifying barriers to COVID-19 testing and vaccination within American Indian or Alaska Native populations, with the ultimate goal of improving access to these essential services.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences is proud to announce that two of its esteemed faculty members, Valerie Williams, Ph.D., MPA, vice provost for academic affairs and faculty development at OU Health Sciences, and Ronald Kingsley, M.D., clinical professor in the College of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology, have been recognized as honorees at the “55 Over 55 Inspiring Oklahomans” event.

OU researchers have received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a research center to address children’s cumulative health impacts from agricultural and non-chemical exposures. This grant will create the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma and Texas. The Center will focus on mitigating the chemical and non-chemical stressors that affect school absenteeism caused by gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.

The University of Oklahoma will receive $16 million over four years from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to recruit, retain, and graduate medical students from Tribal, rural and medically underserved communities in Oklahoma, with the goal that those students will go on to practice in their home communities.