Harrison McCrea Dickson, MD and Clifford C. Baker, MD Presidential Professorship

Harrison McCrea DicksonEstate gifts from Perelman School alumni Harrison McCrea Dickson, MD (1925–2015) and Clifford C. Baker, MD (1910–2000) established the Harrison McCrea Dickson, MD and Clifford C. Baker, MD Presidential Professorship in 2016.

Dr. Dickson of the Class of 1958 practiced in Chambersburg, PA and served in the U.S. Army, the U.S. Coast Guard, and as Deputy Chief Surgeon for Project Hope, the peace-time hospital ship that offered medical services and training to developing nations.

Dr. Baker was a graduate of the Class of 1935. He was Chief Radiologist at Yonkers General Hospital, NY, and Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

Presidential Professorships are awarded to exceptional scholars of any rank who will contribute to the diverse experiences, perspectives, and eminence of Penn faculty. They were established in 2011 to strengthen the University’s ability to recruit, retain and mentor distinguished scholars who are preeminent in their fields and have demonstrated a commitment to sustaining an inclusive and vibrant academic community.


 

Brady photoCurrent Chairholder

Donita C. Brady, PhD

Donita C. Brady, PhD is the inaugural Assistant Dean for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Research Training at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Harrison McCrea Dickson, MD and Clifford C. Baker, MD Presidential Associate Professor since 2020. She came to Penn Medicine in 2015, after receiving a BS in Chemistry from Radford University and her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Since arriving at Penn, Dr. Brady has served as an active member of the Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics Graduate Group, Cell & Molecular Biology Graduate Group, and Pharmacology Graduate Groups. As an advocate for underrepresented trainees, she co-directed the Penn Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) for two years, has mentored several PREP and Summer Undergraduate Internship Program (SUIP) scholars, and co-chaired the Combatting Racial Inequities Committee for our graduate student and postdoctoral programs. With departmental and Abramson Cancer Center support, Dr. Brady also partners with eCLOSE Institute to develop cancer research summer camps for the School District of Philadelphia’s high school students. 

Dr. Brady completed her postdoctoral work with Dr. Christopher Counter at Duke University focusing on pharmacologically accessible signaling pathways downstream of oncogenes, like RAS. Dr. Brady’s innovative research program centers on the critical role played by metals, particularly copper (Cu), in oncogenic signaling and cancer biology. Her laboratory has been responsible for major conceptual advances in an entirely new field of oncogenic signaling that she helped to found. 

Dr. Brady has received many honors, including being named a Pew Charitable Trust Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, a William Guy Forbeck Research Foundation Scholar, and a Minority Faculty Scholar of Penn’s Center of Excellence in Health and Education. In recognition of her scientific accomplishments, in 2020, Dr. Brady was the recipient of the prestigious Michael S. Brown New Investigator Research Award. 

Previous Chairholders

  • Chyke Doubeni, MD 2018–2019