Kerr Whitfield, PhD, Founding Faculty Member, Retires

One of the founders of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and a key member of the Admissions Committee, Kerr Whitfield, PhD, will retire June 29.

“Kerr is a founder for us,” said Dean Guy Reed, MD, MS. “He is someone who helped start this medical school and contributed so much to so many missions. The qualities he has as a human being have been a model to many people, and his generosity that he brought to our college and to our students set the tone and created a culture that we are attached to.”

More than 31 years ago, Dr. Whitfield began working at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson as a researcher with Mark Haussler, PhD.

In July 2007, Dr. Whitfield moved to Phoenix as an assistant professor at the fledgling medical school. He became block director of the GI and Metabolism, Diabetes and Obesity block, which is part of the second-year curriculum. He has taught the block every year since the inception of the curriculum while continuing his research in Vitamin D.

But he means so much more to the medical school, serving as a mentor, researcher, educator, actor in simulation exercises and Admissions Committee member.

“It has been very gratifying to see our reputation grow,” Dr. Whitfield said. “We are now getting applications from all across the country. I remember starting out with just the three historic buildings as our classrooms. It’s astonishing to see how much we’ve grown.”

Although it wasn’t included in his job description, Dr. Whitfield volunteered as the chair of the Admissions Committee for the past six years. He has invested 1,772 hours in the admissions process, equivalent to 44 weeks of work.

“We’ve matriculated 483 students,” said Glen Fogerty, PhD, associate dean of Admissions and Recruitment. “If you think about it, there isn’t a class that hasn’t been built without Kerr.”

Dr. Whitfield said one of his favorite memories is the graduation of the first class in 2011.

“That was a special moment,” he said. “We had worked so hard to create that curriculum. I had taught a few biochemistry courses in Tucson, but starting a whole new program was really terrifying. It was such a rewarding day when our students not only graduated, but many matched with prestigious residency programs.”

Since then, Dr. Whitfield has attended seven more graduations and said it’s still exciting to see the accomplishments of the students and witness how much they’ve grown over four years.

“If there is any legacy I hope to leave behind, it would be the students,” Dr. Whitfield said. “Teaching these students is the reason I get up in the morning.”

Dr. Whitfield worked in Dr. Haussler’s lab, where he studied vitamin D and its role in various aspects of human health — including treating the skin condition psoriasis. Much of his work focused on the receptor protein of vitamin D, which is a nuclear protein that turns genes on and off when the vitamin D hormone is present.

“The thing I find the most satisfying and gratifying about my career has been working with the students in the lab,” Dr. Whitfield said. “I’m extremely proud of them and what they’ve accomplished.”

A retirement party for Dr. Whitfield took place June 19 in the Virginia G. Piper Auditorium with 120 colleagues and friends. A graduated cylinder with a single rose was placed on each table. According to Taben Hale, PhD, the single roses were in recognition of the last 10 Valentine’s Days, when Dr. Whitfield brought roses to female colleagues and staff.

Dr. Whitfield graduated with a bachelor’s degree in German Language and Literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After graduation, he lived in West Germany for two years, working as a laborer, before pursuing a doctorate in biochemistry from North Carolina State University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

He thanked his colleagues, friends and family, including his wife, Barbara, and two sons, Christopher and Daniel, for their support over the years.

Dr. Whitfield will enter a new phase of his career in August, when he begins work as a physics teacher for eighth-grade students at Desert Garden Montessori in Ahwatukee.

“Seeing somebody, especially a young person, start to put the pieces together and really accomplish something with that knowledge, there is something about that that really excites me,” Dr. Whitfield said. “This might be these eighth graders’ first experiment or first introduction to science. If I can explain it properly and get them to understand it and be stimulated by it, there is something about that that is really gratifying and keeps me young.”