Green, former Dean of Health Professions, named Professor Emeritus

Dr. Gordon Green
Dr. Gordon Green

By Lin Lofley

Dr. Gordon Green, who served as Dean and Professor for the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions from 1991 to 2006, has been appointed as a Professor Emeritus at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

While leading what was then known as UT Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School, Dr. Green supervised a revamping of programs that resulted in upgrading the bachelor’s degree areas that now produce sought-after master’s-degree Physician Assistants and doctoral Physical Therapists.

“I’m very honored and grateful for this recognition,” he said. “UT Southwestern is just a marvelous place to be, and my time here has been satisfying in every way.”

A graduate of Rice University, Dr. Green worked in pharmacology for a couple of summers with plans to go to medical school. Those plans were postponed while he fulfilled his military obligation to the Navy after finishing his undergraduate studies. He earned his medical degree from UT Southwestern in 1968, completed his residency in Pediatrics at the University of Washington in 1971, and Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972.

Dr. Green then embarked on a significant public-health career. His service included Director of the Dallas County Health Department, Deputy Director of Health Service Delivery for Region VI of the U.S. Public Health Service, and Director of Occupational Health and Safety for the National Center for Toxicological Research. By 1991, Dr. Green had joined the School of Health Professions, where he says he was “in the right place at the right time.”

Nationally, the need for non-physician health professionals was being recognized at the federal level, and the government offered assistance to more than 20 schools to upgrade such programs. One of the academic centers selected to fulfill that need was the current School of Health Professions.

“The school was expanding when I arrived,” Dr. Green said. “Drs. Charles Sprague and Kern Wildenthal – the first two Presidents of UT Southwestern – positioned the school to succeed, and we experienced dramatic growth. The Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant programs are good illustrations of how we were able to catch the wave.”

Also while he was Dean of the school, Dr. Green helped bring UT Houston’s public health offerings to UT Southwestern; and he created Grand Rounds for the Allied Health Sciences School.

The school responded to Dr. Green’s dynamic leadership and created in his honor the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions Outstanding Student Clinician Award. Since stepping down as Dean, Dr. Green has remained on the faculty as a Professor of Family and Community Medicine and of Pediatrics, while also serving for a number of years as chairman of the annual State Employee Charitable Campaign at UT Southwestern.

Friends and colleagues of Dr. Green have launched a drive to raise $100,000 to establish the Gordon Green, M.D., Endowed Scholarship Fund at the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions. Those interested in making a gift may do so by visiting the website utsouthwestern.edu/donatenow, and specifying the “Gordon Green Fund” in the designation field.

“Dr. Green has always been a very strong student advocate, so an endowment in his honor supporting student scholarships is most fitting,” said Dr. Jon Williamson, Dean of the School of Health Professions.

Drs. Green and Williamson have long been friends, probably as soon as the day they first sat down together.

“The first time I met Dr. Green, he asked if I had lunch plans,” Dr. Williamson recalled. “He said ‘I’ve got just the place.’ As we drove toward downtown Dallas, I was thinking he was heading to an upscale steakhouse or the like. But when he turned into the parking space for a little hole-in-the-wall burger joint, I thought, ‘I already like this guy.’ ”