Guest Speaker Bio - Dr. Selwyn Vickers
Dr. Selwyn Vickers graduated from Medical School at Johns Hopkins University in 1986. He also completed a Surgical Internship, Surgical Research Fellowship, Surgical Residency and Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at Johns Hopkins. In addition, he spent a year as a Surgical Registrar at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England. In 1994, Dr Vickers joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an Assistant Professor. By 2001 he was named the Chair of General Surgery and Co-Director of the Minority Health and Research Center at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He became the Jay Phillips Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery in 2006 where he holds the position of Associate Director of Translational Research at the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Vickers specializes in pancreatic, bile duct and gastrointestinal cancer. His research interests include gene therapy as an application in the treatment of pancreatobiliary tumors and the role of growth factors and receptors in the oncogenesis of pancreatic, hepatobiliary, and gastrointestinal surgery. Dr. Vickers has been a Principal Investigator on UAB Pancreatic Cancer SPORE and now Co-Principal Investigator on a combined UAB/Minnesota SPORE that received a score of 18. He has several other research grants funded by the NIH that focus on pancreatic cancer, apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells, health disparities, and enhancing minority participation in clinical trials.
He is the author of over 150 articles and scientific publications, he wrote 7 book chapters, and has had the privilege of being asked to speak at several named lectureships around the country. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Archives of Surgery, Journal of Surgical Research, Yearbook of Surgery, The American Journal of Surgery, and Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. He is an ad-hoc reviewer for Surgery, Mosby Yearbook of Surgery, Gastroenterology, Clinical Center Research and Cancer Research.
Dr. Vickers serves on the American College of Surgeons Board of Governors as the Vice Chair, Board of Governors Committee on Socioeconomic Issues and as the Society of University Surgeons representative. He is on the Board of Trustees for the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, Northwestern College, Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He recently was appointed as a Director for the American Board of Surgery. He is a member of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s Scientific Advisory Board, on the Executive Committee of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons and is a member of several professional organizations. Most recent, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2009.
He has been listed nationally as one of the “Best Doctors in America” and “America’s Top Doctor” for several years in a row and recognized locally as one of the “Best Doctors in Minnesota”. Dr Vickers earned “America’s Leading Doctors” by Black Enterprise magazine in 2008. He has received numerous other awards throughout his career.
