Dr. Charles L. Rosen named chair of the WVU Department of Neurosurgery

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Charles L. Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., has been named chair of the West Virginia University Department of Neurosurgery. Arthur Ross, III, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the WVU School of Medicine, announced the appointment on Tuesday.

“Following a comprehensive search process, which provided us with the privilege to carefully consider some of this nation’s very finest academic neurosurgeons, we have concluded that the best candidate for this important job was right here at WVU School of Medicine,” Dr. Ross said. “Charles Rosen is an outstanding clinician, a gifted teacher and a well-funded clinical translational scientist. It is increasingly rare to find someone so accomplished in each of these mission-critical areas. I am pleased and delighted that Dr. Rosen has accepted this exciting challenge and look forward to the many things that this great department will achieve with him at the helm.”

Dr. Rosen has been serving as interim chair of the department since September 2011. He joined the faculty at WVU in 2001 and has held various positions in the department since that time, including vice chair, director of research and the neurosurgical research laboratories, director of cranial base surgery and program director for residency in neurological surgery.

Outside of the department, Rosen has served on numerous committees within the School of Medicine. He is also involved with various professional organizations and societies, including the American College of Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and the North American and European Skull Base societies. He has also served as president of the Neurological Society of the Virginias.

In addition, he is currently the medical director for neurosurgery at United Hospital Center, Ohio Valley Medical Center and Wheeling Hospital.

“Dr. Rosen has done a great job in strengthening neurosurgical services in Clarksburg and Wheeling,” Judie Charlton, M.D., WVU Healthcare chief medical officer, said. “We are pleased to have a chair who embraces the university’s land grant mission of service to the state.”

Rosen completed his undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis, his master’s and doctorate degrees at the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and his medical degree at the New York University School of Medicine. He completed advanced training at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is board certified in neurological surgery.

“I am humbled and honored to lead this prestigious Department of Neurosurgery,” Rosen said. “I look forward to serving the people of West Virginia through patient care, education and advances in research.”

Rosen replaces the former chair of the department, Julian Bailes, M.D., who left WVU last year to become the chairman of the neurosurgery program at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill., and a professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.