Dr. Anne Marie Lennon will step down as director of the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology in order to lead the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh effective February 1, 2024. Dr. James Hamilton will fill the role of interim director of the division starting January 1.
Dr. Anne Marie Lennon is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the management of pre-cancerous lesions of the pancreas and early cancer detection. She first came to Hopkins as an advanced endoscopy fellow in 2008 and joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2010. Since that time, she has held several leadership positions including director of the Multidisciplinary Pancreatic Cyst Clinic, clinical director of the Division of GI and division director beginning in 2020. She has expertly led the division over the past three years, making strides in both diversity, equity and inclusion as well as cutting-edge patient care. She co-chaired the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy’s Women’s Task Force, which highlighted inequities in pay and career advancement, and has led the development of molecular markers to better characterize and guide management for patients with pancreatic cysts. She has been involved in the development and validation of a multi-cancer blood test for the early detection of esophageal, stomach, colorectal, liver, pancreatic, lung, ovarian and breast cancer. We are very thankful for the talent and expertise she has shared with us throughout her many years in the division, and so proud of her for becoming the first woman chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Thankfully there is no shortage of talent remaining in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, and we are delighted to announce that Dr. James Hamilton has agreed to step in as interim director.
Dr. Hamilton is an associate professor in the Divisions of Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine and director of hepatology for Johns Hopkins Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland and then completed an internal medicine residency at Northwestern. He returned to the University of Maryland to complete a gastroenterology fellowship before coming to Hopkins to complete the advanced hepatology fellowship. In 2005, he received the National Institutes of Health’s National Research Scholar Award for gastroenterology and hepatology. Since joining the faculty at Hopkins in 2007, he has served as program director of the Transplant Hepatology Fellowship, co-directed the Genes to Society Curriculum for the GI and Liver Section and co-directed the Pilot and Feasibility Award Program of the NIH/JHU Digestive Disease Core. His clinical specialties include Wilson Disease, Cystic Fibrosis related liver disease, liver transplantation, hepatocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis, portal hypertension, acute and chronic viral, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune and cholestatic liver disease. Dr. Hamilton is known for his patient care and has been named a Top Doctor by Baltimore Magazine each year since 2018. He is also a prolific investigator, with interests including the copper homeostasis and its regulation of lipid metabolism and liver injury, the fundamental mechanisms regulating liver fibrosis and the molecular genetics of hepatocellular carcinoma and early detection biomarkers.
Please join us in congratulating both Dr. Anne Marie Lennon and Dr. James Hamilton on their new leadership roles. Dr. Lennon will certainly leave large shoes to fill, and we are both grateful to Dr. Hamilton for being up to the task and confident in his ability to lead the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology into the future.
