McDowell Named First Recipient of New Endowed Chair for Emergency Medicine Named after Dr. David Griffen

Dr. Christopher McDowell, an emergency medicine physician with SIU Medicine and the medical director of the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation, will be the first recipient of a newly created endowment for emergency medicine.

Memorial Medical Center is contributing $1 million to launch the David L. Griffen, MD, PhD, Endowed Chair of Emergency Medicine. Griffen is the founding chair of the SIU Division of Emergency Medicine.

“The endowment recognizes the fulfillment of Dr. Griffen’s great vision for better emergency medical care, for better education and better research in the field of emergency medicine,” said Dr. Jerry Kruse, dean and provost of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. “It will further train the next generation of emergency physicians, who will serve the people and communities of central Illinois and the United States for decades to come.”

A ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, at the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation to launch the endowment.

“This endowment honors Dr. Griffen’s diligent work and his formative leadership through which he assembled the exceptional faculty members, clinicians and resident physicians who have built a program of excellence at SIU School of Medicine and Memorial Medical Center,” said Ed Curtis, president and CEO of Memorial Health System. “He has transformed the practice of emergency medicine in this community and inspired a new generation of physicians.”

McDowell, who is also associate professor and vice chair of education with the Department of Surgery at SIU School of Medicine, “has flourished as a faculty member and leader at the SIU School of Medicine,” Kruse said.

View photos of the event on Zenfolio.