John Carethers, MD, has begun his tenure as the president of the American Gastroenterological Association Institute, according to a June 1 press release sent to Becker's by the organization.
Dr. Carethers joined the AGA in 1993, where he has served in numerous ways, each contributing to his rise into the role of president this year. He currently serves as the John G. Searle Professor of Internal Medicine and chair of the department of internal medicine at Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine.
Dr. Carethers, a Detroit native, attended Wayne State University in Detroit, where he earned both his undergraduate degree in molecular biology and biophysics and his medical degree.
Dr. Carethers served as a GI fellow at Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan and then moved to a laboratory fellowship, where he worked with C. Richard Boland, MD, and established himself as a "brilliant" researcher, according to Dr. Boland.
In 2000, he was asked to serve as director of the GI fellowship at the University of California San Diego and then moved to become chief of the GI section at the San Diego VA hospital in 2002.
The leadership at University of California San Diego then appointed him to the division chief position in 2004.
Under his leadership at UCSD, the size of the faculty and research portfolio doubled, and he obtained the division's first National Institutes of Health-funded GI center grant.
Throughout his career, he held numerous leadership positions and earned numerous awards and honors.
His colleagues described him as "positive," "compassionate," "enthusiastic," "caring," "humble," "hard-working" and "brilliant," according to an AGA press release published in GastroJournal. AGA representatives said they are "honored and proud" to have him serve as president.