Ball Appointed Dean of Medicine, Senior Vice President for Health Affairs

CINCINNATI—William Ball, MD, has been appointed University of Cincinnati (UC) senior vice president for health affairs and Christian R. Holmes Professor and Dean of the College of Medicine. Ball’s appointment today by the UC Board of Trustees is effective immediately.

Ball is the 51st dean of medicine since the college was founded as the Medical College of Ohio in 1819. The College of Medicine is the second oldest public medical school in the country.

UC President Santa Ono, PhD, had named Ball interim vice president for health affairs and dean on Nov. 1, 2014, after Thomas Boat, MD, stepped down from those positions. The Board’s action today elevates the vice president for health affairs position to senior vice president. Ball becomes one of just three senior vice presidents at the university.

"Bill Ball is the right person to lead our College of Medicine and medical campus forward as we map out a strategic plan for their future that is more comprehensive than ever. He is a respected and long-time member of the university community who is committed to working with our partners and creating a strong Academic Health Center that meets our regional needs with nationally prominent educational, research and patient care programs,” said UC President Santa Ono, PhD.

Ball will report to President Ono and work closely with Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Beverly Davenport, PhD, who serves as the university’s chief academic officer. 

"I look forward to this new role to help make health a focus for the entire university and to work closely with our health care system to provide a unified plan for the Academic Health Center and UC Health,” Ball said.

As senior vice president for health affairs, Ball is responsible for Academic Health Center strategic planning relating to interprofessional training and translational and team science. The Academic Health Center includes the university’s colleges of Allied Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. He also will strengthen efforts to foster health collaborations across all UC campuses and university affiliations and is responsible for the affiliation agreements the university has with clinical partners including UC Health, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Shriner’s Hospitals for Children–Cincinnati.

The College of Medicine has 680 medical students, 538 graduate students and 249 postdoctoral fellows in addition to 1,060 residents and fellows serving University of Cincinnati Medical Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. With approximately 2,000 employees, including 1,649 faculty, the college has a total budget of more than $512 million. Deeply involved in research, the college and the affiliated Cincinnati Children’s received more than $290 million in research funding in 2014. Patient care is provided by University of Cincinnati Physicians, the college’s 800-member faculty group practice, and at the hospitals of UC Health including UC Medical Center, the college's primary teaching hospital.

Ball also has been serving as the university’s vice president for research, a position he has held since August 2011. He will step down from that position following the completion of an ongoing search for a new vice president for research.

A professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and pediatrics, Ball is the former chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (2001 to 2008). He also served as chief of the section in pediatric neuroradiology at Cincinnati Children’s (1988 to 2001).

Ball received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Louisiana State University and his medical degree in 1974 from Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed a fellowship in pediatric radiology/pediatric neuroradiology at Cincinnati Children’s and fellowship training equivalent in adult neuroradiology at the University of New Mexico Medical Center where he served as faculty from 1981 to 1984 before joining the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s in 1984. He is board-certified in both pediatrics and radiology. 

In 1992, Ball created the Imaging Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s and served as its director until 2002. He has conducted extensive research on pediatric neuro-imaging, contributed to nearly 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 13 book chapters and edited the text Pediatric Neuroradiology. 

While at UC, Ball has chaired or co-chaired a number of initiatives, including the Bioinformatics Taskforce, the Civic Engagement Council, the Initiatives subcommittee of the Academic Priorities Taskforce and the Research in Radiology Taskforce.  He is currently a member of both the President’s Cabinet and Executive Committee. 

He has served as a member of the governing board for UC’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training, CincyTech Advisory Committee, Confluence Board of Trustees, TechSolve Board of Directors and ex officio member of the UC Research Institute Board of Directors after serving as the interim CEO for the UC Research Institute in its first year of operation.