Leadership Bios
Department Chairs/ Division Heads/ Directors
William T. Butler, M.D.
Interim President and Chancellor Emeritus
William T. Butler, M.D., a distinguished immunologist, joined Baylor College of Medicine in 1966 and during the following decades served the College in a variety of roles, including Associate Dean and Dean of Admissions.
In 1976, he was named Acting Executive Vice President and Dean, and in 1977, he became Executive Vice President and Dean. Two years later, Butler was named President and Chief Executive Officer of the College, and served in that position for almost 17 years. During that time, he led the College in a period of unprecedented growth and national and international recognition.
He assumed the post of Chancellor in 1996, and in 2004 became Chancellor Emeritus. In Dec. 2008, Dr. Butler became Interim President.
Bobby R. Alford, M.D.
Chancellor
Dr. Bobby R. Alford, Chancellor at Baylor College of Medicine, is also a professor of otorhinolaryngology and communicative sciences. In 1985, he was appointed a Distinguished Service Professor at Baylor. He has served as chair of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery since 1967. In January 1996, the Baylor Board of Trustees named the department in his honor.
Alford serves on the staff of several hospitals in the Houston area: The Methodist Hospital, the Ben Taub General Hospital, the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, the Texas Children's Hospital, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research. He is chief of service at Methodist, Ben Taub and the VA. Alford is also chair of the board and CEO of the National Space Biomedical Institute, a consortium of 12 universities.
Donna K. Sollenberger
Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Baylor Clinic and Hospital
Donna K. Sollenberger serves as chief executive officer of the Baylor Clinic and Hospital and executive vice president of Baylor College of Medicine.
She oversees the college's clinical activities and is directing the planning and development of BCM's first college-owned hospital. Sollenberger previously served as president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics.
During her tenure, the system was named as a top performer in quality and accountability, outpatient diabetes care and outpatient orthopedic care by the University Health System Consortium, one of the "100 Most Wired Hospitals in America" multiple times, one of the Top 100 Integrated Health Networks and one of the 100 Best Companies for working mothers by Working Mother magazine in 2007. Sollenberger was also selected as one of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare.
Prior to joining UW in 1999, Sollenberger served as executive vice president and CEO of City of Hope, vice president for hospital and clinics at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and chief administrative officer – surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Illinois at Springfield.
William R. Brinkley, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Graduate Sciences & Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Dr. William "Bill" R. Brinkley is senior vice president for graduate sciences and dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor. He is a Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and serves as co-director of the W. M. Keck Center for Computational Biology.
Brinkley began his career at Baylor in 1976, as the director of the Division of Cell Structure and Function in the Department of Cell Biology. In 1985, he became chair of the Department of Cell Biology and director of the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He returned to Baylor in his present position in 1991. As dean, he is interested in the training of future scientists and active in the curriculum development and analysis of career opportunities.
Stephen B. Greenberg, M.D.
Senior Vice President and Dean, Medical Education
Stephen Greenberg, M.D., was named senior vice president and dean of medical education in August 2006. He also serves as chief of the Medicine Service at Ben Taub General Hospital and Distinguished Service Professor. He served as the chair of the Department of Medicine from 2004-2006.
Greenberg received his medical training at the University of Maryland, where he was an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate. He completed his internship and residency in medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital, and his fellowship in infectious diseases at Baylor. He became a faculty member at Baylor, where he holds appointments as professor of medicine and professor of molecular virology and microbiology, and as the Herman Brown Teaching Professor at Ben Taub General Hospital.
A recipient of numerous honors, including the Distinguished Faculty Award of the Baylor Alumni Association in 1999, he has been repeatedly listed in The Best Doctors in America®.
Susan L. Hamilton, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Dean of Research and Chair, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Susan Lois Hamilton is a senior vice president and the dean of research as well as the chair of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. She received her Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Colorado Health Science Center in Denver and did her postdoctoral work in the Department of Neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City.
Dr. Hamilton is currently the editor-in-chief of Physiological Reviews and is a member of both the MDA Scientific Advisory Committee and the SMEP NIH study section. Her area of research is skeletal muscle excitation-contraction coupling and human diseases associated with alterations in this process. Her research is funded by four NIH R01 grants, a project of NIH program project grant with investigators from Harvard, and a grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. She is also the program director for a NIH training grant in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. Dr. Hamilton chairs the ECPRAC committee for Endowed Chairs and serves on the Faculty Promotions and Tenure Committee and on the Best Minds Faculty Cabinet. Dr. Hamilton helped to found the new Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine Graduate Program and the new Mouse Phenotyping Core.
Stephen J. Spann, M.D.
Senior Vice President and Dean, Clinical Affairs
Stephen Spann, M.D., serves as senior vice president and dean for clinical affairs. As dean for clinical affairs, Spann has responsibility and authority for the budgets of the clinical departments and centers. He will further strengthen the college's focus on patient-centered care, with a commitment to quality and service. He also works with the leadership of BCM's affiliated teaching hospitals to advance clinical outreach programs in the community.
Dr. Spann received his bachelor's degree at Baylor University and his medical degree at Baylor College of Medicine. He interned at Baylor affiliated hospitals and did his residency at Duke University School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, N.C.
He came back to Baylor 1997 to serve as professor and chair of the school's Department of Family and Community Medicine. Prior to that, he served as an instructor in family medicine at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. He served as an assistant and then associate professor of family medicine at the Oklahoma University Health Center in Oklahoma City. From 1990-1997, he served as professor and chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Spann is the author and co-author of many professional articles in his field and has written chapters in texts on family medicine in both Spanish and English.