Two named to endowed professorships at ECU

GREENVILLE, N.C.—   Two faculty members have been named to endowed professorships at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

Dr. Theodore Delbridge has been named the first Distinguished Professor in Emergency Medicine. Delbridge, a physician, is professor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the medical school. The professorship was created through contributions of $333,000 matched by $167,000 from the state’s Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund. The funds will be used for faculty recruitment and retention and other special projects as determined by Delbridge.

Dr, Charles Hodson, a reproductive physiologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been named the first D.E. Darnell Jones, MD, Endowed Professor for Residency Education. That chair was also created by $350,000 in contributions matched by $167,000 in state funds. Hodson will use interest generated by the money to further resident physician education in the department. The chair is named for the longtime chairman of OB/GYN, who retired in 2005.

The Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund was established in 1985 by the North Carolina General Assembly to enable each constituent institution of the UNC system to receive and match challenge grants to create endowed chairs for selected distinguished professors. It provides matching grants of $1 in state money for every $2 in private funds.

ECU has 30 professorships endowed through the fund, nine in the Division of Health Sciences, which includes the Brody School of Medicine. The ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation is raising funds for three more endowed professorships in the division.