About Melina Kibbe

Melina R. Kibbe, MD, became president of UTHealth Houston and the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Chair in September 2025. Prior to this appointment, she served as the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine’s dean and chief health affairs officer. Melina Kibbe is a nationally renowned researcher in the field of vascular surgery and a former chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Prior to UNC, Dr. Kibbe was vice chair of Research in the Department of Surgery and deputy director of the Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology at Northwestern University. She graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, completed her internship, residency, and research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and completed her vascular surgery fellowship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Clinically, Dr. Kibbe has significant experience with both open and endovascular surgery. She is board-certified in general and vascular surgery and is RVT and RPVI certified by ARDMS.

Dr. Kibbe’s research interests focus on developing novel drug-eluting therapies for patients with vascular disease while simultaneously studying the mechanism of how these therapies impact the vasculature. She has been funded as Principal Investigator (PI) by the NIH, DOD, VA, AHA, and AMA, among others, in addition to serving as co-Investigator, consultant, or mentor on many other federally supported awards. She has also served as the national PI or site PI for many gene and cell-based clinical trials for patients with critical limb ischemia, as well as a consultant for many clinical trials for patients with peripheral artery disease. She holds >10 patents or provisional patents. Her Research was recognized by President Obama with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2009.

Dr. Kibbe has assumed national positions of leadership. She is the Editor-in-Chief for JAMA Surgery, which is currently the #1 surgery journal in the world. She has served as president for the Association for Academic Surgery, the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society, the Association of VA Surgeons, and the Surgical Biology Club II. She is also the Secretary for the American Surgical Association, Chair of the Scholarship Committee for the American College of Surgeons, and an active member of many other societies. She was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation and, most notably, the National Academy of Medicine.

Melina Kibbe has been a strong advocate for sex inclusion in biomedical Research. She was interviewed by Leslie Stahl for 60 Minutes on this topic, and later appeared on the Colbert Report. Her publications on the presence of sex bias in surgical Research gained much media attention nationally and internationally, and resulted in policy development with the National Institutes of Health, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the FDA. In addition, a bill has been introduced into the House, the “Research for All Act of 2015”.

Her bibliography includes over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, review articles, and book chapters. She has authored or co-authored over 240 nationally and internationally presented abstracts. She has received numerous awards, including the Society of Vascular Surgery Women’s Leadership Award, AMWA Gender Equity Award, AMSA Women Leaders in Medicine Award, Northwestern University Tripartite Award, Association of VA Surgeons Presidential Citation, University of Chicago Distinguished Service Award, and the Virginia Business 2023 Women in Leadership Award. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. In recognition of her passion and dedication to education, she has received 24 awards for teaching excellence as a faculty member.
She co-founded and was the Chief Medical Officer for VesselTek BioMedical, LLC, a company that specialized in the development of medical devices to treat vascular disease.

Melina Kibbe was born and raised in Southern California. She graduated from the University of Chicago College of Biological Sciences in 1990 and Pritzker School of Medicine in 1994. She completed her internship, residency, and research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2002 and her vascular surgery fellowship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2003. Dr. Kibbe completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine in 2012 and the Management Skills for Innovative University Leaders at the Kellogg School of Management Business for Scientists and Engineers Program in 2009.