Dr. Frank Torti is now in place as executive vice president for health affairs and medical school dean, and on his second day, more than 200 faculty, staff and students joined President Susan Herbst for a welcome reception in the academic lobby.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity to define, and redefine, the UConn Health Center,” Torti said during his brief remarks Wednesday.

Torti will have more to say Tuesday, May 8, at noon, at his first town hall meeting in Keller Auditorium.

“I am looking forward to meeting with all of you, sharing my vision, and beginning a dialogue with you on the future of the Health Center,” Torti wrote in an email to faculty, staff and students last week.

The Health Center’s eighth medical school dean joins UConn from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he has served as vice president for strategic programs, director of its comprehensive cancer center, and chair of the Department of Cancer Biology. He is a well-known physician and clinical investigator who has designed and executed clinical trials in urologic cancer that have been used throughout the world.

Torti is the founding and past president of the Cancer Biology Training Consortium, a national society of cancer biology chairs and program directors that now involves 70 U.S. academic medical centers. He was recently elected to the board of directors of the Association of American Cancer Institutes and of the National Coalition for Cancer Research. He served on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and was recently appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Trial Advisory Committee and the Board of Scientific Advisors.

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