Joe GN Garcia

Biography

Joe G. N. "Skip" Garcia, MD, is a world-renowned pulmonary physician-scientist, an endowed professor of medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. A noted health administrator, scholar and educator, Dr. Garcia also is a leading authority on the genetic basis of lung disease and the prevention and treatment of inflammatory lung injury.

Previously, UA senior vice president for health sciences, he stepped down from that role effective Jan. 1, 2017. Before joining the UA in 2013, Dr. Garcia served as vice president for health affairs at the University of Illinois and as the Earl M. Bane Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  As vice president for health affairs, Dr. Garcia oversaw the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health), a $1.2 billion health sciences and clinical enterprise. He also provided oversight of the University of Illinois Hospital and the University’s federally qualified community health centers.

His prior leadership positions include director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University (1998-2005), chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago (2005-2009), and vice chancellor for research at UIC (2010-2012).

Dr. Garcia is internationally recognized for his genetic-based research on lung disease and for development of novel therapies for critically ill patients with acute inflammatory lung disease. He has nearly 400 peer-reviewed publications. He has an expansive portfolio of NIH-sponsored research and continues to direct large federally funded programs.

Dr. Garcia is a passionate advocate for the training of physician-scientists and is an active supporter of minority medical and science students. He has nurtured many minority students at UIC, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago, guiding them into MD and PhD programs.

Dr. Garcia earned his Bachelor of Science in biology at the University of Dallas in 1976 and received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1980. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (1980-1983) and completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Albany Medical College (1983-1985).