Rutgers Names Nationally Recognized Clinician-Scientist in Obesity and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease as New Chair of Medicine

Jeanne M. Clark joins Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School from Johns Hopkins University

Jeanne M. Clark, a board-certified internal medicine physician with extensive research experience and a nationally renowned expert in the epidemiology and treatment of obesity, will join Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as the Henry Rutgers Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine.

Clark joins Rutgers from The Johns Hopkins University, where she served as the Frederick L. Brancati MD Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, and director of General Internal Medicine for the past decade. The division, supported by 85 full-time faculty, includes the sections of ambulatory care, palliative medicine and bioinformatics and data sciences – as well as a longstanding research fellowship in general internal medicine and clinical fellowships in hospice and palliative medicine, obesity medicine and women’s health.

“The appointment of Dr. Clark, a nationally renowned clinician-scientist committed to the study of epidemiology and treatment of obesity, and its complications, especially Type 2 diabetes, greatly enhances the leadership of our Department of Medicine,” said Amy P. Murtha, dean of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). “Dr. Clark is also an esteemed graduate of our medical school, and we proudly welcome her home to continue her longtime commitment to groundbreaking research and the advancement of evidence-based medical care that improves lives.”

Regarding her vision for the Department of Medicine, Clark discussed initiatives to drive its success.

“The Department of Medicine at Rutgers is poised to help the medical school become the leading learning health system in New Jersey and to achieve the ‘quintuple aim’ of enhancing patient experience, improving clinical outcomes, reducing per capita costs of health care, improving provider well-being and achieving health equity for the state’s residents,” she said. “To do this, the department will grow its translational research and embed it into our clinical settings to enable transformational discoveries that can ultimately improve every aspect of our care of patients and the health of all our communities. Further, I see the Department of Medicine becoming a leading home for internal medicine education of medical students, residents, and clinical and research fellows.”

“I am delighted to welcome Dr. Clark to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital family,” said Alan Lee, president of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), a medical partner with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “Dr. Clark’s exceptional reputation, experience, and passion for improving all aspects of patient care will be instrumental in helping us achieve our shared goal to become the best place to receive and deliver care In New Jersey. She is the right leader to help advance our historic partnership with Rutgers Health at our academic medical center and to achieve our academic health mission in New Jersey.” 

A general internist with an active primary care practice, Clark has extensively studied obesity, Type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, including how race, socioeconomic and geographical health inequities impact diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. She served as principal investigator at Johns Hopkins and co-chaired the steering committee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial and was the director of an American Heart Association-funded Obesity Center that evaluated the effects of time-restricted feeding on obesity.

The author of more than 200 articles and four book chapters, Clark is a longstanding co-investigator and medical safety officer of the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network, which she plans to continue. In addition, she has served as the inaugural executive director of the Brancati Center for the Advancement of Community Care since its creation in 2014. There, she has created community partnerships to bolster health education and access to clinical programs.

For Clark, mentorship and advocacy are crucial to elevating the educational experience. She has worked with medical students, fellows and junior faculty in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins to ensure those individuals receive the support and guidance necessary to be successful independent investigators in academic institutions.

“Education is at the heart of every medical school, and RWJMS and the Department of Medicine are no exceptions,” Clark said. “Enhancements to clinical operations and research will reignite enthusiasm for teaching, attract top learners, and enable learners of all levels to reach their potential.”

At Johns Hopkins University, Clark is a member of the core faculty at the Welch Center for Prevention Epidemiology and Clinical Research and a professor of medicine jointly appointed to the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Clark’s recent research includes the effect of sex hormones on cardiometabolic outcomes in patients with diabetes (Look AHEAD) and the NIH-funded LEAP trial, which seeks to determine the long-term effectiveness of the anti-obesity medication Phentermine.

Clark also is the recipient of multiple mentoring and sponsorship awards, including the Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Advancing the Careers of Women in Medicine from the American College of Physicians. She is a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease as well as a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Obesity Society. She was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2019.

Clark received her medical degree from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1992 and completed a residency in internal medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., where she also was chief resident. She completed a clinical research fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins, where she received her master’s of public health and joined the faculty in 2000. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in French from Johns Hopkins, where she graduated cum laude.

Clark joins Rutgers and RWJUH in October.