Karen A. Fagan, MD, serves as the Chair of the GW Department of Medicine. In this role, Fagan provides leadership to the department’s 12 divisions, 579 faculty members including 119 full-time faculty, internal medicine residency program, and 12 accredited fellowships.
Fagan joined GW from the University of South Alabama, where she served as the interim chair of the Department of Medicine and continues to serve as a professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, the Alice and John Tanner Chair in Pulmonary Medicine, the chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and the director of the University of South Alabama Pulmonary Hypertension Center. She is a graduate of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine fellowship program and has held positions at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and at Colorado State University.
An internationally recognized authority on pulmonary hypertension and leading clinical trialist, Fagan has extensive experience in developing strong translational research programs between the clinical division and basic sciences departments at the University of South Alabama. She is a respected author and has been widely published in high-impact academic journals. She also has contributed to many book chapters, given grand rounds, and has presented at national and international scientific meetings. Fagan is a recipient of multiple honors and awards, including the Red Sash Award for Excellence in Teaching from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and the Leadership Award from the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly of the American Thoracic Society.
Fagan has a track record of success in rapidly adapting organizational transformations, including growth in inpatient and outpatient volumes through coordination with medical staff, clinical leads, and organizational leadership. She is well known for her success in developing academic clinical junior faculty and is recognized as a strong consensus builder – leading to a vibrant department with strategic growth within the practice.
Fagan received her BA degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of California at San Diego, Third College. She received her MD degree at the University of San Diego School of Medicine, completed her residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and her fellowship in Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, CO.
