After a 10-year career with the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center, L. Clark Hansbarger, M.D., associate vice president for health sciences and dean of the WVU School of Medicine’s Charleston Division, will retire effective June 30, 2013. Chancellor Christopher Colenda, M.D., M.P.H., who announced the retirement, will appoint a committee to conduct a national search for Dr. Hansbarger’s successor.
A native of Welch, W.Va., Hansbarger is a graduate of Duke University’s School of Business and the Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine. He did his residency training with both Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Following six years’ service with the U.S. Navy, he returned to Case Western Reserve University as an assistant professor of pediatrics. In the 1970s, he practiced in one of the early primary care clinics in Monroe County, W.Va., specializing in both family medicine and pediatrics.
Following his time in Monroe County, he was named director of the West Virginia Department of Health by then-Gov. Jay Rockefeller and served in that capacity from 1981-1985.
Hansbarger left West Virginia for Albuquerque, N.M., and joined the University of New Mexico, where he served as dean of graduate medical education, division director of general pediatrics and medical director for the pediatrics ambulatory service.
In September 2002, he and his wife, Christine, returned to West Virginia, and he assumed his duties on the WVU/Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) Memorial Division campus. In addition to his roles with WVU, he served as the director of medical education for CAMC’s residency programs.
“Dr. Hansbarger has been an exemplary leader for the Charleston Division, strengthening the faculty, advocating for our students and cementing our partnership with Charleston Area Medical Center and the entire healthcare community in the Kanawha Valley,” said Dr. Colenda.
“It has been a pleasure to work with a physician who understands so completely the needs of students, the state and its people,” said Arthur J. Ross III, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the WVU School of Medicine. “He has made certain that our Charleston Division has always taken a leadership role in protecting and advancing the health of West Virginians.”
Hansbarger said he returned to West Virginia because he always remained passionate about healthcare, medical education and missions that combined those two concepts.
“It has been an incredible honor to serve as a leader and educator in the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center system. I can’t think of a better way to spend the last decade of my career,” Hansbarger said. “Our campus is one of the oldest regional medical campuses in the United States, and our programs have continued to flourish despite budgetary challenges and the ever-increasing regulatory nature of healthcare and education. I’m very proud of the training we’re doing in Charleston, and I feel confident that we’re sending highly skilled, well-educated providers into the communities we serve.”
