Sherman Elias Appointed Chair of Ob-Gyn

Sherman Elias Appointed Chair of Ob-Gyn

Sherman Elias, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Feinberg School effective June 1. Currently head of ob-gyn at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Elias holds a secondary appointment as professor in UIC’s Department of Molecular Genetics and specializes in reproductive genetics. He will replace John J. Sciarra, MD, PhD, Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, who has chaired the department since 1974. The appointment was announced in a joint message from medical school Dean Lewis Landsberg, MD, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital President Dean Harrison.

Dr. Elias earned his MD degree from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He began his ob-gyn residency at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, completing it at the University of Louisville, where he served as chief resident. He supplemented residency training with postdoctoral fellowships in genetics at Yale University School of Medicine and Northwestern University Medical School (now the Feinberg School). Dr. Elias stayed on at Northwestern, becoming assistant professor of ob-gyn in 1978 and associate professor in 1982.

In 1986 he joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, where he was director of the Division of Reproductive Genetics as well as professor and associate chair for academic affairs and research. In 1994 Dr. Elias accepted an offer from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to become the Henry and Emma Meyer Chair and professor of ob-gyn, simultaneously holding the position of professor of molecular and human genetics. In 1998 he left Baylor for his current position at UIC.

Former president of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Elias is a director of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and president of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Foundation. His credits include more than 200 journal articles and six books.