Today, Stanford’s publication The Dish announced that James R. Jacobs will be the new associate vice provost of student affairs and executive director for Vaden Health Center. Jacobs, who assumes his position on March 7, replaces Ira M. Friedman, who has served as executive director for the last 22 years.
“I am thrilled to join the Stanford community,” Jacobs said in a press release. “Most especially, I look forward to engaging with Stanford students.”
Jacobs also stressed his belief in the importance of student health and well-being in their time at college.
Jacobs joins the Stanford faculty from the University of Southern California (USC), where he was the medical director and acting executive director for the Engemann Student Health Center and had a joint appointment as associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine. Before his tenure at USC, Jacobs served as director of student health services at Ohio State University and Syracuse University.
Jacobs is also a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and is board-certified in emergency medicine. His clinical interests span a wide range, from wound care to psychotropic medications to men’s health; other interests include intelligence analysis and biosecurity. Despite Jacobs’s previous roles as administrator and director of a large staff of medical care providers, Jacobs himself is still very much involved in the practice, seeing patients most days.
In addition to his position at Vaden Health Center, Jacobs has been named the new associate vice provost for student affairs. He joins Greg Boardman, the vice provost for student affairs.
Boardman said that he was “pleased” to hear of Jacobs’s leadership role at Vaden Health Center.
“He has been the director for several major university health care programs, and he understands deeply the principles and best practices of college health,” Boardman said.
Jacobs has a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from Duke University in addition to a doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Contact Jacob Nierenberg at jhn2017 ‘at’ stanford.edu.