DEPARTMENT HEAD OF PEDIATRICS - SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

     2015%209:26:38%20AMIt is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Raymond G. Watts, MD, as Professor and Head, Department of Pediatrics and Chair of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. Dr. Watts has not yet set a precise “start date”, but we expect that he will begin with the School of Medicine sometime in December 2015. In the meantime, he will be participating in meetings, by phone and in person as his schedule allows, to facilitate his transition. As you probably are aware, Dr. Barkemeyer is serving as interim department head and is working closely with Dr. Watts.

       Dr. Watts, a native of Louisiana, is currently the Hugh J. Morgan, Jr, Endowed Chair for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Professor at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Dr. Watts is a graduate of Northeast Louisiana University (Now UL Monroe) and LSU School of Medicine Shreveport. He trained at the University of Arkansas and the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He served active duty in the US Air Force Medical Corp and while in the service participated as a medical educator at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. He has been a faculty member at UAB since 1988, participating at some level in virtually every facet of UAB’s operations. He has tremendous depth and breadth of experience in medical education, clinical care delivery, clinical program building, patient care quality initiatives, clinical outreach, and medical staff affairs. He is an avid LSU fan (so please don’t be discouraged from his wardrobe colors on the attached photo). We are excited that he is bringing his expertise, energy, and commitment to academic medicine and children’s health to LSU and our clinical partners, particularly LCMC Health and Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. JL and SN