Officers
Victor J. Thannickal, MD
President
Tulane University School of Medicine
Professor & Harry B. Greenberg Chair
Department of Medicine
1430 Tulane Avenue, #8018
New Orleans, LA 70112
Phone: 504-988-7800
vthannickal@tulane.edu
Term of office: 2026
About Dr. Thannickal
Victor J. Thannickal, MD, is Professor of Medicine and the Harry B. Greenberg Chair of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine, where he serves as Chair of the John W. Deming Department of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Oral Roberts University School of Medicine and completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Oklahoma, followed by fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Tulane in 2021, he held faculty and leadership positions at Tufts University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
An internationally recognized physician-scientist, Dr. Thannickal's research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of lung repair, regeneration, fibrosis, and aging. His work has advanced understanding of chronic lung diseases and contributed to the development of novel therapeutic strategies targeting fibrotic disorders. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and has maintained continuous research support from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Thannickal is committed to mentorship and has trained numerous physician-scientists and biomedical researchers who now lead independent research programs across the United States. He is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians and the American Clinical and Climatological Association and is the recipient of the American Thoracic Society Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments. He serves on the editorial boards of several leading biomedical journals and is Deputy Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.
A Fellow of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation since 2012, Dr. Thannickal has served as Councilor, Chair of the Program Committee, and member of multiple SSCI committees before assuming the Society's presidency in 2026.
Dana V. Rizk, MD
Past President
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Division of Nephrology
ZRB 614
1720 2nd Ave S
Birmingham, AL 35294
Phone: 205-934-9509
drizk@uabmc.edu
Term of office: 2025
About Dr. Rizk
Dr. Dana Rizk is currently Tenured Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and inaugural holder of the Anupam Agarwal Endowed Professorship.
Her current clinical and research interests revolve around glomerular diseases and, in particular IgA Nephropathy (IgAN). She is the principal investigator of several clinical trials and is part of several federally funded multi-disciplinary translational research projects focused on the pathogenesis of IgAN and the role of biomarkers.
Since 2015 she has served as Director of Clinical Trials Research in the Division of Nephrology. She set out to re-organize the infrastructure and build the team supporting the successful growth of clinical trials in her division. Her goal was to have clinical trials accessible to patients. She also wanted to streamline the submission and budget negotiation process to make it more efficient. In doing so, she hoped to engage junior investigators and trainees and build future ambassadors in clinical research.
More recently in 2025 she was appointed Associate Dean for Clinical Trials at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine. In that role she was tasked to increase the clinical trial footprint of UAB across the School of Medicine and to expand and train the next generation of clinical trialists on campus.
She has served in many research and educational leadership roles locally, nationally and internationally. Her research efforts have resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine.
In 2013, Dr. Rizk was elected member and fellow of the Southern Society of Clinical Investigation. She was President of SAFMR in 2018 and President of SSCI in 2025 and helped organize the Southern Regional Meeting in New Orleans during these tenures.
Leslie Gewin, MD
Secretary-Treasurer and President-Elect
Washington University School of Medicine
660 South Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63110
Phone: 314-747-1304
gewin@wustl.edu
Term of office: 2023-2026
About Dr. Gewin
Leslie Gewin, MD, is a physician-scientist in the Division of Nephrology at Washington University in St. Louis and a Staff Physician at the St. Louis VA. Her research interest focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying chronic kidney disease progression. She runs a basic science lab funded by both the NIH and the VA that studies how renal tubular epithelia respond to injury and how these responses promote repair or fibrosis. Dr. Gewin is particularly interested in the role of growth factors and altered metabolism in modulating these epithelial responses. She also has a chronic kidney disease clinic and attends on the nephrology consult service at the St. Louis VA. Dr. Gewin is passionate about teaching and supporting the next generation of physician-scientists. She previously served as Co-director of the Kidney Student Research Training Program, which places medical students in a lab for a mentored research experience during the summer between first and second years. To advocate for the careers of women investigators, Dr. Gewin has been involved as a Councilor on Women in Nephrology, an international group that provides mentorship and professional development to both men and women in nephrology. Dr. Gewin is also a fellow and current Councilor of Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (SSCI) and served as a judge for the SSCI's Nephrology Young Investigators' Forum 2019-2021.
S. Calvin Thigpen, MD
Secretary-Treasurer-Elect
University of Mississippi Medical Center
UMMC Cancer Institute
350 West Woodrow Wilson Drive
Jackson, MS 39213
Phone: 601-984-5590
Fax: 601-984-5599
sthigpen@umc.edu
Term of office: 2024
About Dr. Thigpen
Dr. Calvin Thigpen completed his medical degree, internal medicine residency, chief residency, and hematology-oncology fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson, Mississippi. He is now a Professor of Medicine and is the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director and Vice-Chair for Education of the Department of Medicine at UMMC. He currently practices and teaches both inpatient and outpatient general internal medicine and engages in medical education research focused on the link between growth vs fixed mindsets and objective educational outcomes.
Dr. Thigpen has been a member of the SSCI since January 2013 and a Councilor from 2019-2023. He is the current Chair of the Membership Committee and guided the development of the SSCI's Early Career Council in 2021 to stimulate membership, collaboration, and networking among the society's early career investigators and educators. Dr. Thigpen has chaired the Career Advancement for the Clinician Educator workshops at the Southern Regional Meetings (SRM) since 2019, and he was recognized as the SSCI's Mentor of the Year in the Post-Graduate Category at SRM 2022.
Dr. Thigpen's career interests are the education, mentorship, and career development of internal medicine and subspecialty trainees and junior faculty.
Joan Kemp
Executive Director
Southern Society for Clinical Investigation
6359 Tribute Lane
Dora, AL 35062
Phone: 205-648-8429
Cell: 205-566-6090
jkemp5@tulane.edu
About Ms. Kemp
Ms. Kemp serves as Executive Director of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation and has done so since 1991. In October of 2017, she retired from the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center after serving as the Director of Operations and Assistant to the Director since 1969.
When she is not working for the SSCI or the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, she enjoys spending time with her family and her horses.
Pamala Schmidt
Administrative Director
Southern Society for Clinical Investigation
1430 Tulane Ave #8451
New Orleans, LA 70112
Phone: 504-988-6886
Fax: 504-988-1779
ssci@tulane.edu
pschmidt@tulane.edu
About Ms. Schmidt
Ms. Schmidt serves as Administrative Director of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. In addition to her role at the SSCI, she is also the Assistant Director of the Center for Continuing Education at Tulane University.
Jesse Roman, MD, FACP, FACCP
Editor in Chief - The American Journal of the Medical Sciences
Emory University School of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building
615 Michael Street, Room 205P
Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: 404-712-2970
jesse.roman@emory.edu
Term of office: 2017-2027
