Dr. Karen Remley to serve as Founding Director of EVMS Brock Institute

Story Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:35:00 EDT

Karen Remley, MD, MBA, will serve as the Founding Director of the recently established EVMS M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health. She will lead the institute’s effort to leverage EVMS’ clinical, research and educational programs to positively affect specific health priorities in Hampton Roads.

Dr. Remley joins EVMS March 18.

“Her extraordinary leadership at the regional and state levels, combined with her record of successfully addressing public-health challenges, will ensure that this important program gets off to the best possible start,” says EVMS Provost and Dean Richard Homan, MD. “The Brock Institute represents a major step toward our community-focused vision, and we’re extremely pleased that Dr. Remley will help establish the institute’s presence in Hampton Roads.”

Dr. Remley served as Virginia Commissioner of Health for more than four years. Prior to her initial appointment in 2008 by then-Gov. Timothy Kaine, she worked in senior leadership positions for several health-care organizations, including Sentara Healthcare, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia and Physicians for Peace.

In addition to leading the Brock Institute, Dr. Remley will hold a faculty appointment as Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Professions.

“This is an exciting opportunity for EVMS and for our friends and neighbors,” says President Harry Lester. “With Dr. Remley guiding it, the Brock Institute offers us the chance to really engage our community in a deeply meaningful way. And at the end of the day, that’s why we’re here.”

The Brock Institute is named in honor of M. Foscue Brock, MD, a tuberculosis specialist who led Norfolk’s Grandy Sanatorium for 29 years until he entered private practice in the early 1950s. He volunteered at the public-health center in Norfolk during his career and was a beloved family doctor.

“We’re thrilled that EVMS has found someone passionate about creating healthy communities to be the Brock Institute’s founding leader,” says Macon Brock, Dr. Brock’s son and co-founder of Dollar Tree Inc. who, with his wife, Joan, donated $3 million to establish the institute. “He would be proud that a physician and leader of Dr. Remley’s caliber is working with EVMS to improve lives in Hampton Roads.”

Dr. Remley brings a history of identifying and addressing key health initiatives. During her tenure as Health Commissioner, the state saw significant improvement in public-health indicators such as infant mortality, cardiovascular disease and teenage pregnancy.

“EVMS and the Brocks have created an opportunity to reach out to this community in a way that has never been possible before,” Dr. Remley says. “The inherent value of an academic-medical center like EVMS is the ability to detect local need and respond in a comprehensive way — with clinicians, scientists and students all focused on effecting change. That’s exactly what the Brock Institute will allow us to do.”

Dr. Remley’s background includes:

• Serving as Chief Executive Officer of Physicians for Peace and Chief Medical Officer of Operation Smile Inc.
• 15 years as an attending physician in the emergency department at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters
• Teaching at three institutions of higher education, including at EVMS, where she is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Professions
• Numerous awards for leadership, health-care management and public-health advocacy
• Bachelor’s degree and MD from University of Missouri, Kansas City; and MBA from Duke University. 

Watch the EVMS News video on Dr. Remley: