Mayo Clinic names new dean of Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Leigh Griffiths, Ph.D. (CV ’16), is dean of Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Dr. Griffiths will set and direct the graduate school’s education mission including developing the workforce of the future by recruiting and matriculating exceptional Ph.D. and M.D.–Ph.D. students. The leadership responsibilities of dean will involve establishing financial stability for Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences to enable growth across all three campuses.

Dr. Griffiths is a veterinary cardiologist, cardiovascular surgeon and research scientist on the Rochester campus. His research focuses on identifying and overcoming immunological barriers in organ transplantation, with the goal of applying such insights in cardiovascular regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Dr. Griffiths also has longstanding interest in modernizing and shaping educational curricula and recently worked with faculty to reform the Biomedical Engineering and Physiology track core curriculum.

Prior to joining Mayo Clinic in 2007, Dr. Griffiths was a tenured faculty member at University of California, Davis, where he was selected as a Dean’s Teaching Scholar and trained in education theory. He led reform of the school’s professional veterinary school curriculum.

Dr. Griffiths, a professor of medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, succeeds Bruce Horazdovsky, Ph.D. (BMB ’02), who served as interim dean.