New member elected to Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees

Friday, February 18, 2005

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 18, 2005 — The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees today welcomed a new member and noted the completion of another member's term as part of its annual elections held each February.

Michele Halyard, M.D., radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., completed her term on the board of trustees as an internal member — a trustee who serves on the Mayo Clinic staff. She will be officially honored for her eight years of service at the May board meeting. The Board of Trustees elected Leslie Milde, M.D., anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, to serve in the vacated seat. Dr. Milde was elected to a two-year term on the board and as a member of the board's executive committee.

Continuing their service and elected to new terms as internal trustees were Franklyn Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D.; Nina Schwenk, M.D.; Hugh Smith, M.D.; Robert Smoldt; Lester Wold, M.D.; Jeffrey Korsmo; and Shirley Weis. Re-elected as public trustees were James Barksdale, A. Dano Davis, Louis Gonda and Marilyn Carlson Nelson. In addition, the following trustees were reaffirmed as officers: Denis Cortese, M.D., president; Dr. Smith, vice president; Smoldt, vice president; and Jonathan Oviatt, J.D., secretary.

The board also recognized at a dinner Thursday Richard Weinshilboum, M.D., pharmacologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who was awarded a new Mayo Clinic College of Medicine named professorship, the Mary Lou and John H. Dasburg Professorship in Cancer Genomics Research. John Dasburg, a public member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees since 1996, and his wife, Mary Lou, founded the professorship in honor of a fellow trustee, Franklyn Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. The professorship will fund research into the genes contributing to the development and spread of cancers.

Dr. Weinshilboum has served on the Mayo Clinic staff since 1972. He is a professor of molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics and internal medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and his research focuses on pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics.

Named professorships at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine represent the highest academic distinction for a faculty member. Faculty are appointed to a professorship through nomination and endorsement of their peers and then confirmed by Mayo Clinic senior leadership. Appointed individuals are recognized for distinguished achievement in their specialty areas and service to the institution.

These professorships are named in honor of the benefactors. The gift funds, which may be unrestricted or focused on a specific medical area, are held in endowment. All income from the endowed professorships supports Mayo Clinic programs in medical education and research.

The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, a 30-member group of public representatives and Mayo physicians and administrators, is responsible for patient care, medical education and research activities at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.; Rochester, Minn.; and Scottsdale, Ariz.

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