Janet Southerland ’82 (’84 BSDH, ’89 DDS, ’94 MPH, ’05 PhD), Chair
Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Janet Southerland is the vice chancellor of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
She is also a tenured professor in the School of Dentistry, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Dr. Southerland has proven success in aligning academic programs to best prepare the next generation of health professionals while promoting a culture of innovation, diversity, equity, inclusion, and excellence.
Prior to moving to LSU Health, she was at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston Texas, where she was Vice President for Interprofessional Education, Institutional Effectiveness, and the Health Education Center. She was also a Professor in the Department of Nutrition Metabolism and Rehabilitative Sciences and a clinical professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Dr. Southerland provided oversight and leadership for building a state of the art 160,000 sq. ft. Health Education Center and 77-bed simulated hospital one of the first of its kind in the country.
Dr. Southerland’s previous experiences include Professor and Dean of Meharry Medical College, School of Dentistry, where she also served as Chair of the Institutional Review Board and a Co-Investigator of the NIH-funded Meharry Translational Research Center and co-leader of two scientific cores; and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, where she served as the Chair of Hospital Dentistry, Chief of Oral Medicine, and Director of the Hospital Dental Clinic.