After serving in an interim role for nearly a year, David R. Nelson, MD, was appointed president of UF Health and senior vice president for health affairs at UF in April. An expert in liver disease, his research has generated more than $80 million in funding, and he has authored more than 200 publications. He has held multiple leadership roles, co-authoring the U.S. treatment guidelines for hepatitis C and representing the U.S. on the World Health Organization HCV guidelines committee. Nelson has received numerous awards for his work, including the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Learning Health System Research Champion Award and the FDA’s Regulatory Science Excellence Honor Award, and he has been continuously recognized as one of America’s top gastroenterologists.

“Dr. Nelson is a highly respected and remarkably talented physician, researcher, scholar and educator — all qualities that make him the right leader for UF Health at a key moment in its trajectory,” said UF President Kent Fuchs.

Desmond Schatz, MD, was named interim chair of the department of pediatrics at the UF College of Medicine and physician-in-chief of UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital.

Schatz, a professor of pediatrics and the associate chair of the department, assumed the role June 20 as Scott Rivkees, MD, began his appointment as state surgeon general and secretary of the Florida Department of Health. Schatz is an internationally regarded Type 1 diabetes researcher who has published more than 360 papers, the majority related to the prediction, natural history, genetics, immunopathogenesis and prevention of the disease. He continues to serve as medical director of the UF Diabetes Institute and director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Clinical Research Center.