Steven Lee Berk, M.D. was appointed Dean of the School of Medicine in 2006 and the Executive Vice President and Provost, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, in 2010. Dr. Berk graduated from Boston University School of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Disease fellowship at Boston City Hospital. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease with a certificate of added qualification in Geriatrics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha, and Sigma Xi.

Dr. Berk moved to Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1979 to join the new medical school at East Tennessee State University. There, he was appointed as Chief of Infectious Disease in 1982, Professor of Medicine in 1986, Chairman of the Department of Medicine in 1988. In 1999, Dr. Berk joined the faculty of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He held the positions of Regional Dean for the Amarillo Campus, Professor of Medicine, and Mirick-Myers Endowed Chair in Geriatric Medicine until his appointment as Dean in 2006. He is the author or co-author of over 120 peer-reviewed publications and four textbooks. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American Geriatric Society, and the American College of Chest Physicians. He has served on the NIH Special Advisory Panel on the evaluation of vaccines against infections in the elderly, on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society and as a reviewer for most Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease journals. He serves on the Board of Directors Nominating Committee for the Association of American Medical Colleges and is chair of the AAMC community-based deans subcommittee. His teaching ability was well-recognized at ETSU where he received the medical school’s Teacher of the Year Award ten times and the university’s Distinguished Faculty Award. The American College of Physicians bestowed the title of Laureate in Medicine on Dr. Berk in 1998, and he was elected to the national board of Alpha Omega Alpha in 1999. Dr. Berk was awarded the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Distinguished Service Award in 2003. He received the 2006 Hope Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and the March of Dimes honored him with the Our Hero Award in 2007. In September 2011, Anatomy of a Kidnapping, Dr. Berk’s inspiring personal account of surviving an abduction in 2005, was published and received the Book of the Year Silver Award in 2011 given by True Crime, adult non-fiction. He was honored with the Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, and the same year, University Medical Center in Lubbock established the Steven Berk Endowed Chair in Medical Excellence. Through Dr. Berk’s leadership, the school has experienced continued growth of innovative ideas and programs. Under his leadership, the school completed the most extensive curriculum reform in its more than 40-year history. His personal vision for addressing the ever-increasing need for primary care physicians launched a unique Family Medicine Accelerated Track, the first program of its kind in the country. Dr. Berk’s leadership reflects an important balance between education, research, clinical care, and service to the community.