Leadership updates

A sampling of recent major achievements and developments from UC Davis Health and the UC Davis School of Medicine. For more listings and news, please visit our newsroom and follow us on social media.

New UC Davis Health top executive named

UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May has appointed Mark I. Rosenblatt, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., M.H.A., a former UC Davis attending physician and assistant professor, to the position of vice chancellor of human health sciences.

Rosenblatt will oversee UC Davis Health, which includes three hospitals: the nationally ranked UC Davis Medical Center and UC Davis Children’s Hospital, as well as the UC Davis Rehabilitation Hospital. It also includes oversight for two nationally ranked schools of health — the UC Davis School of Medicine and Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing — and a network of primary care clinics across inland Northern California. He will begin Jan. 19, 2026.

“Mark brings to UC Davis deep experience in academic hospital systems. He has made patient care and the patient experience a priority. He has a proven record of collaborating with faculty and staff across medical and other disciplines to leverage the best that a comprehensive university like UC Davis has to offer.”—UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May

Rosenblatt is the G. Stephen Irwin executive dean at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, the chief executive officer of the University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics, and distinguished professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Rosenblatt joined the University of Illinois Chicago in 2014 as professor of ophthalmology. He has held increasing levels of leadership over his decade there, including as head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, director of the Corneal Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, and graduate faculty in the neuroscience program. Previously, Rosenblatt was a faculty member of the Weill Cornell Medical College for six years, including service as vice chair of the Department of Ophthalmology.

An internationally recognized clinician-scientist, he leads groups of scientists investigating the mechanism of corneal peripheral nerve regeneration following injury, and the use of nanoengineered biomaterials for use in stem cell delivery to the ocular surface. He has published widely, including over 225 original manuscripts, review articles, book chapters and abstracts.

Rosenblatt is a graduate of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Honors Program in Medical Education and the Combined M.D./ Ph.D. program, receiving his Ph.D. in biochemistry, cell and molecular biology. He completed his M.B.A. at New York University and his M.H.A. at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. He completed his ophthalmology residency and combined clinical/research fellowship in corneal disease at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School.

Holmes appointed chair of Emergency Medicine

The UC Davis School of Medicine has named James F. Holmes, M.D., M.P.H., as the chair and Bo Tomas Brofeldt Endowed Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, where he has served as interim chair since July 2024. With more than three decades of service at UC Davis Health, Holmes is a distinguished clinical epidemiologist whose research focuses on the initial evaluation and care of injured patients — particularly children — and his work has significantly advanced understanding of CT utilization following trauma. In 2020–21, Holmes served as the president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and helped to successfully lead the organization through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Holmes founded the UC Davis Emergency Medicine Research Fellowship and co-directed the department’s K12 Research Training Program, and currently directs the Clinical Translational Science Center’s KL2 Research Training Program.
Jayasundera appointed chair of Ophthalmology and Vision Science

Kanishka Thiran Jayasundera, M.D., M.S., F.A.C.S., has been appointed professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science at the UC Davis School of Medicine. He will also serve as the Fosse Endowed Chair in Vision Science Research. Jayasundera comes to UC Davis Health from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he served as the Paul R. Lichter Professor of Ophthalmic Genetics and professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the university’s Kellogg Eye Center. A passionate researcher and innovator, Jayasundera specializes in retinal diseases and is known internationally for inherited retinal diseases, and has led numerous groundbreaking studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation Fighting Blindness and other major organizations. He developed the Michigan Retinal Degeneration Questionnaire and the Michigan Vision-related Anxiety Questionnaire, which transformed how patient-reported outcomes are measured in clinical trials for inherited retinal diseases.
Burns new Center for Neuroscience director

Vision neuroscientist Marie E. Burns, Ph.D., has been appointed the sixth director of the Center for Neuroscience (CNS), an interdisciplinary hub for neuroscience research and training at UC Davis, after serving as interim director for the past year. A professor with joint appointments in the departments of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, and Cell Biology and Human Anatomy in the School of Medicine, Burns brings more than 20 years’ leadership experience to the role. She served as vice chair for research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences from 2004–2007 and inaugural director of the UC Davis Center for Vision Science from 2007–2012, and has directed the NIH T32 Vision Science Training Program since 2017. She currently studies how the body’s immune system reacts when nerve cells in the eye begin to die.
Lakshminrusimha named School of Medicine executive associate dean

Satyan Lakshminrusimha, M.D., M.B.B.S., professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics, has been appointed as the School of Medicine executive associate dean. The position supports Dean Susan Murin in executing academic, clinical and research goals while ensuring operational efficiency. Lakshminrusimha will continue his leadership as chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, roles he has held with distinction since 2017.
Chaudhari named director of UC Davis Imaging Research Center

Abhijit Chaudhari, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Radiology, has been appointed director of the UC Davis Imaging Research Center (IRC), where he has served as interim director since 2023. Chaudhari is also director of the UC Davis Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging and a core scientist at the California National Primate Research Center. The IRC was established to support MRI research and promote modern MRI-based methods in basic science and clinical investigations. Chaudhari’s research focuses on developing in vivo medical imaging techniques, and he uses PET and MRI in musculoskeletal and neurological disorders.