Robert Simari

Robert D. Simari, M.D., the Franklin E. Murphy Professor in Cardiology, has been the executive vice chancellor for the University of Kansas Medical Center since January 9, 2018. A 1986 alumnus of the KU School of Medicine, Simari also served as executive dean for the KU School of Medicine from March 2014 through August 2019, providing oversight and leadership to the school's three campuses in Kansas City, Wichita and Salina.

At KU Medical Center, Dr. Simari oversees an institution that includes three campuses; nine programs in ranked in the top 50 among public universities; 23 accredited residency programs; and more than 25 acclaimed research institutes and centers. Dr. Simari has led the efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus so the medical center's educational, research and clinical missions can safely continue.

During his time as executive dean of the KU School of Medicine, Dr. Simari was instrumental in developing the school's ACE curriculum and helped guide the planning and construction of the medical center's state-of-the-art Health Education Building, which opened in 2017 on the Kansas City campus.

Prior to joining KU, Simari served as vice chair for the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and co-principal investigator of the Center for Translational Science Activities at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he also served as a physician scientist, cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. While at the Mayo Clinic, his research laboratory made fundamental discoveries in the areas of thrombosis and identification of vascular stem cells, and for 12 years he led the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute-funded Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, which performs early phase clinical trials in cardiovascular cell therapy. He continues his cardiology practice at The University of Kansas Health System.

Simari earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and his medical degree from the University of Kansas. Following medical school, he completed his internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, then served fellowships in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at the Mayo Clinic. Following his clinical training he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan.

In 2018, he was appointed to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accrediting body for MD-granting medical education programs in the United States and Canada; he was nominated vice chair in 2020-21 and will serve as chair in 2021-22. Dr. Simari is a member and served as the president of the association of University Cardiologists. He also holds memberships in the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Clinical and Climatological Association.