Sheila A. Lukehart, research professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, has been named assistant dean of research and graduate education. The part-time appointment is pending UW Board of Regents’ approval. The newly created position will be based at Harborview Medical Center.

Lukehart will be a chief administrator for the basic science, clinical investigation, epidemiology, and health-care outcomes research programs at Harborview. As part of her responsibilities, she will obtain recommendations from various offices and departments on the efficient use of research space at Harborview and on planning for the future.

In addition, Lukehart will work with other leaders on establishing and funding new research programs that fit Harborview’s mission. She also will assist with faculty development efforts and will facilitate graduate and postdoctoral training at Harborview.

Lukehart is noted both for her studies of Treponema pallidum, the causative organism of syphilis, and for the training she has given to college undergraduates, medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Many of her past trainees hold faculty positions at major universities or work as scientists in private industry.

For more than 20 years, Lukehart has investigated many aspects of syphilis, from its molecular biology to the impact of social networks on its transmission. She is active internationally and nationally in attempts to control syphilis and endemic treponematoses. At the UW, she has served in several leadership roles on scientific affairs committees. She has also helped in advancing the professional growth of women and minorities in biomedical careers.

Lukehart graduated from the University of California, San Diego. She earned a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. She was a Venereal Disease Research Fund postdoctoral fellow at University of California, San Diego, and at the UW before joining the UW faculty.

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