Loftley, Silvestri appointed as vice chairs of medicine

Ben Clyburn, M.D., chair of the Department of Medicine, has announced the appointment of two new vice chairs in the Department of Medicine.

Aundrea Loftley, M.D., assistant professor, Division of Endocrinology, will assume the new role of Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion.

Gerard Silvestri, M.D., MS, professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy & Sleep Medicine, will assume the role of Senior Vice Chair for Faculty Development, a role he previously served from 2012 to 2018.

Both appointments are effective May 1, 2021.

Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion:

As our first Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion, Dr. Loftley will provide vision and leadership in promoting a departmental culture that values and honors diversity, equity and inclusion.

Our department is proud to have people from a wide range of backgrounds all working in pursuit of a common mission: to provide superior patient care, to educate the next generation of physicians, and to perform seminal discovery research. In light of the discussion the country is having around racial diversity, we acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do as well and we created this position to further our commitment to diversity. We believe that a more equitable department is more beneficial to everybody, and allows us to provide more excellent care, and continue to conduct top-notch research.

Dr. Loftley completed her medical school training, internal medicine residency and endocrinology fellowship at MUSC. In 2015, after completing her fellowship in endocrinology, she established the first outpatient endocrinology practice for McLeod Physician Associates at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, South Carolina. In 2017, Dr. Loftley joined the MUSC faculty as assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolic Diseases. In 2018, she was awarded the Professional Research Consultants Excellence in Healthcare Top Performer Award for scoring at or above the 100% percentile for patient satisfaction. Dr. Loftley is board certified in both internal medicine and endocrinology.

In addition to providing care for patients, Dr. Loftley is committed to medical education and serves as a Master Clinical Skills Teacher for the College of Medicine. Her research interest is in health disparities related to diabetes.

Dr. Loftley brings unbridled enthusiasm and passion for this role, and I am excited to work with her as we advance our mission.

Senior Vice Chair for Faculty Development:

In this role, Dr. Silvestri will be mentoring faculty members at all levels – instructor through professor – and in all tracks – clinician, research and investigator. Initial emphasis will be on the department’s newer faculty members. The goal is to maximize the impact of each faculty member’s work, point out opportunities for leadership and to aid in selection of career priorities that will facilitate promotion in the medical school. The senior vice chair will coordinate with the division directors to best facilitate the promotion of faculty development and mentorship as a key department-wide priority.

A 30-year veteran of the department and former vice chair of faculty development, Dr. Silvestri is passionate about promoting the careers of our faculty and has mentored numerous trainees who became faculty and leaders at MUSC and other institutions. He has served on and chaired numerous MUSC committees that address faculty promotion and governance as well as education and research administration.

Dr. Silvestri is a professor of medicine and a lung cancer pulmonologist at MUSC with a career dedicated to the evaluation, management and improvement of outcomes of patients with this most common of malignancies. He completed his undergraduate education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, his medical degree at St. Georges University, a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of St. Raphaels/Yale University School of Medicine and fellowship training at Dartmouth. He has an advanced degree in health services research, also from Dartmouth.

Dr. Silvestri began the first multidisciplinary lung cancer clinic in South Carolina, and now evaluates between five and seven new lung cancers per week. His clinical research is patient-oriented and directed towards nearly every aspect of lung cancer care. He has experience in evaluating new technologies for the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer and was the part of the first group to publish the utility of endoscopic ultrasound with fine needle aspiration of mediastinal lymph nodes to stage lung cancer patients.

Dr. Silvestri has been a section editor and author of the American College of Chest Physicians evidence-based guidelines on the diagnosis and management of lung cancer. To date, he has over 200 peer-reviewed journal publications, abstracts, book chapters and invited commentaries in clinical care and research of lung cancer. He has lectured as a master clinician in lung cancer for both the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS), and has served as chair of the Thoracic Oncology Network of the ACCP.

Dr. Silvestri looks forward to supporting faculty members as they advance in their careers, and is grateful for this opportunity.