New chair named for new department in WVU School of Medicine

Dr. Geraldine Jacobson to lead department of radiation oncology

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University School of Medicine has named Geraldine Jacobson, M.D., to be the founding chair of the newly established department of radiation oncology. School of Medicine Dean Arthur J. Ross announced the appointment this week in a message to faculty members.

“One sign of a healthy institution is that it continues to adapt and expand over time to meet the changing needs of the community it serves,” Dean Ross said. “Another is that it is able to attract the best and the brightest to join its ranks. Dr. Jacobson has the credentials to create the type of academic department that will advance the research and education mission of the School of Medicine.”

Dr. Jacobson is the current medical director of the department of radiation oncology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where she has served on the faculty for the last nine years. She earned her undergraduate degree at Michigan State, was pre-med at the University of South Florida and the University of Miami before earning her medical degree from the University of Utah. Her residency training was at Latter Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also has a Master’s in Public Health from the University of South Florida and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Jacobson’s first priority will be working closely with the leadership of the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center to enhance patient services in the radiation oncology clinic. 

“Once this has been accomplished we will aspire to become recognized as a medical school with one of the country’s finest departments of radiation oncology by virtue of the excellent clinical care it provides, the superb nature of its training programs and the critical nature of the knowledge it creates,” Ross said. 

Dr. Jacobson will begin her job at WVU on January 2, 2012.

For more information about the WVU School of Medicine, visit http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/.