The below message was sent to the department earlier today from Chair & DEO Upi Singh, MD.

Please join me in congratulating Isabella Grumbach, MD, PhD, on the next phase of her career as Chair of Internal Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. From all of us at Iowa, I am honored to be the first to offer formal congratulations to her on this news. OU is deeply lucky to have her as she begins the role already with three years of on-the-job training.

In the few months I have been fortunate to work with Isabella, I have appreciated the work she put in to steering this department as interim chair. It is hard to imagine a broader set of challenges for any chair than she faced. Just to name a few: a global pandemic, dramatic shifts in clinical services and administrative support, and the acquisition and integration of an entirely new community hospital. All this and more in three years! Dr. Grumbach sailed this department through wave after wave of COVID rises and falls, hirings and departures of faculty and staff in a national Great Reshuffle, all while overseeing the largest portion of the workforce responsible for addressing those waves. From what I have witnessed firsthand and what I see as a common thread in the comments from colleagues here is that, despite those challenges, she remained steady and calm, accessible and honest throughout.

It is easy to focus on the outstanding work she did in her last years at Iowa as interim chair, but it is important to also recognize the many other contributions she has made to this department and the larger institution. Dr. Grumbach served as Vice Chair for Research for many years, overseeing steady growth in funding and discovery, providing support to a vital and deep bench of internationally recognized researchers. She has also overseen the work of caring for our veterans at the Iowa City VA Health System as chief of Cardiology. That footprint at the VA also included many years of research on a VA Merit award expanding our understanding of atherosclerosis as well as NIH-funded multidisciplinary studies into the impact of oncology-led radiation treatments on small vessels.

At every stage and in every mission, Dr. Grumbach has also made mentorship and preparing the next generation of academic medical professionals an important component. This has been achieved in formal ways through leadership roles within the American Heart Association and other professional societies, but also in the day-to-day operation of her lab. Her generosity in sharing her hard-won wisdom and experiences means that those who come after might have it just a little easier. She was equally generous with me in my transition to the University of Iowa and I am grateful for her guidance and support.

I have every confidence that as the next Chair of Medicine at OU Health, she will bring that same generosity and even-keeled leadership to her new colleagues. We wish her nothing but the best and look forward to celebrating her contributions to Iowa before she heads south to Oklahoma City. Congratulations, Isabella! You will be missed but we are so excited to see your star shine even brighter!