'Much to be done and we will do it together': UTHSC investiture held

Nine months into his tenure as the new chancellor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Peter Buckley had his investiture ceremony Friday morning.

"We will work with our communities in collaboration to remove barriers to care and tackle the serious and pernicious social determinants of health," Buckley said during his speech. "And we will also contribute new knowledge and science to improve the health of Tennesseans and we will work with our communities who wish to support our work, through enabling scholarships that will provide opportunities to great new minds and support our resources and programmatic growth. These things we must do, these things we can do and these things we can and must do together. Through our statewide presence, through our partners and communities across this great state, and friends, that is why we are here today."

More:Could Memphis be the source of improved health for Tennesseans? This UTHSC chancellor says so.

An investiture is an academic tradition during which the university formally grants the authority of the office to Buckley. The event is typically held in the first year of someone's tenure.

Buckley, a psychiatrist and an international expert in schizophrenia, replaced Chancellor Steve Schwab in February. Schwab retired in June 2021. Previously, Buckley was appointed as interim CEO of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in 2020 and led its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buckley served as dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine since 2017. Before that, he was the School of Medicine dean at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

"The selection of Dr. Buckley as chancellor has surpassed the faculty's hopes or expectations," Jillian McCarthy-Maeder, an assistant professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology and president of the faculty senate, said during the investiture. "He brings to UTHSC impeccable credentials, as a preeminent scholar and an outstanding leader of academics for the health sciences. He has demonstrated the vision, optimism and energy to lead us forward."

The investiture also featured a speech from Buckley's brother, Neil Buckley, who poked gentle fun at his brother, sharing stories from throughout his life.

"Peter and I are two of five kids, my parents as it turns out were both doctors," Neil Buckley said. "Four of us were smart and we stayed way, away from medicine. One of us, not so smart."

Buckley has just finished a trip across the state of Tennessee with University of Tennessee system President Randy Boyd. They visited newsrooms and partner hospitals to discuss the medical school's future and reach across the state. Topics discussed included poor health outcomes and health care disparities in the Memphis and Tennessee, topics Buckley revisited during his investiture speech.

"Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane,' and yet today, as we celebrate, we have serious health care disparities in Memphis and in the great state of Tennessee," Buckley said. "And that, and rural health disparities, contribute to the poor overall health of Tennessee. It's coming in at 42 nationally. And so, there is much to be done and we will do it together."

Gina Butkovich covers DeSoto County, storytelling and general news. She can be reached at 901-232-6714  or on Twitter @gigibutko.