IUSM researchers Dr. Ora Pescovitz, executive associate dean of research, and Tatiana Foroud, associate professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, confer with Dr. D. Craig Brater, IUSM dean.
 IUSM hopes to double the amount of research funds it receives from the National Institutes of Health—the nation’s primary source of biomedical research grants—by 2012.
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Dr. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz began her tenure as president and CEO of Riley Hospital for Children Sept. 1 and is continuing to serve as the IU School of Medicine’s (IUSM) executive associate dean for research affairs.
Riley Hospital is part of Clarian Health Partners, which also includes IU Hospital and Methodist Hospital, and is Indiana’s first and only comprehensive hospital dedicated exclusively to the care of children. Riley has 251 staffed beds and serves more than 185,000 in-patients and out-patients from across Indiana, the nation and the world.
Pescovitz has brought a strong set of skills to her new position: as an executive associate dean, she has administered IUSM’s research program, which brings in more than $210 million per year in grants and contracts. She also oversees the Indiana Genomics Initiative, funded by $155 million in grants from Lilly Endowment, which helped lay the research foundation for BioCrossroads and Indiana’s life sciences economic initiatives.
“Ora possesses amazing abilities in all areas of medicine–patient care, teaching, research, administration and advocacy,” said Dr. Richard Schreiner, physician-in-chief at Riley. “She is visionary and passionate about all that is important in health care and academic medicine, especially in all that relate to the health of our children. This appointment is the perfect prescription for great things at Riley Hospital for Children, Clarian Health Partners, IU School of Medicine and the well-being of children.”
Pescovitz is the Edwin Letzter Professor of pediatrics and professor of cellular and integrative physiology. She has served as the director of pediatric endocrinology and diabetology at IUSM and Riley Hospital since 1990.
As a researcher, she has published nearly 170 scientific papers on work primarily related to human growth and pubertal development. She has served as president of the Society for Pediatric Research, the nation’s largest pediatric research organization, and is currently president of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, the major North American organization for pediatric endocrinologists and diabetologists. As a physician, Pescovitz continues to see young patients in her specialty of endocrinology, the hormone-producing system that controls growth and development, reproduction and other bodily systems. She will continue to oversee IUSM’s efforts to dramatically expand its research programs. The school has developed plans to double the amount of research funds it receives from the National Institutes of Health—the nation’s primary source of biomedical research grants—by 2012.
“Ora possesses a progressive and crystal clear vision for the future of Riley Hospital,” said Kevin O’Keefe, president and CEO of the Riley Children’s Foundation. “Given this vision, her deep passion for children and her expertise in research and clinical care, Ora is uniquely prepared to lead Riley into the future. We look forward to working in partnership with Ora for the benefit of Indiana’s children.”
Pescovitz also is chair of the March of Dimes grants review committee, a member of the Ad-Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding and chair of the nominating committee of the Hormone Foundation. Her awards include a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health, IUSM’s highest teaching award and the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
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