George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., appointed interim executive vice dean for academic affairs/chief academic officer

On Dec. 5, the Board of Regents approved the appointment of George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., as interim executive vice dean for academic affairs (EVDAA) in the Medical School, effective January 1, 2025. He also will serve as interim chief academic officer (CAO) for Michigan Medicine.

Mashour takes over EVDAA/CAO duties from Debra F. Weinstein, M.D., who is leaving Michigan Medicine at the end of this year to become president and chief executive officer of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Mashour has served as senior associate dean for faculty and faculty development in the Medical School since May 2024. Prior to that, he chaired the Department of Anesthesiology and held the Robert B. Sweet Professorship from 2019-24. Additional leadership positions include associate dean for clinical and translational research and director of the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research. In 2022, he founded the Michigan Psychedelic Center. He founded the Center for Consciousness Science in 2014.

Mashour received his medical degree and doctorate in neuroscience from Georgetown University, and studied neuroscience as a Fulbright Scholar in Berlin and Bonn. After completing residency and chief residency at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, he pursued a neurosurgical anesthesiology fellowship at Michigan Medicine. In 2007, Dr. Mashour was appointed assistant professor in the departments of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery, with an additional faculty appointment in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. He was promoted to professor in 2017 and appointed professor of pharmacology in 2021.

Mashour is an internationally recognized expert on the neurobiology of consciousness and unconsciousness. He conducts NIH-funded neuroscience research across the translational spectrum, from computational models to laboratory science to clinical trials.

He served as president of the Association of University Anesthesiologists and as a trustee of the International Anesthesia Research Society. His many awards and honors include the Excellence in Research Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and election to the National Academy of Medicine.