Lori Isom named chair of Pharmacology

Following a national search, Lori L. Isom, Ph.D., has been appointed chair of the Department of Pharmacology in the Medical School, effective Sept. 1, 2015. She has served as interim chair of Pharmacology since August 2014.

A professor of pharmacology, molecular and integrative physiology, and neurology, she assumes leadership of a department that has awarded more doctoral degrees in pharmacology than any other American university. She previously served as assistant dean for recruitment and pre-candidate graduate education, and directed the Program in Biomedical Sciences.

Isom received her Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1987 from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 1993 at the University of Washington Department of Pharmacology, and subsequently was promoted to lecturer in pharmacology.

After joining the U-M faculty in 1995 as assistant professor, she was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and full professor in 2007. She received secondary appointments as professor of molecular and integrative physiology in 2009 and neurology in 2015.