Getting to Know School of Medicine Dean Melina Kibbe

Even as she steps into a leadership role, Kibbe intends to maintain her clinical practice and NIH-funded research portfolio. Her clinical practice is focused on the care of patients with vascular disease, and as dean will focus on caring for patients with chronic kidney disease. Her research efforts as a vascular surgeon-scientist are focused on developing novel drug-releasing therapies for patients with vascular disease.

“I think it’s really important for me to continue to serve as a role model to others,” Kibbe said, particularly as a woman in a field that is still mostly male-dominated. “I could never give up my clinical or research side. Those are two totally different worlds, but they’re incredibly important to me, and they’re part of my identity.”

And as if Kibbe weren’t busy enough, she will also continue to serve as editor-in-chief of the “Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Surgery.”

“If anything, being editor of the journal was a huge benefit for me when I was a surgery department chair because I actually knew the literature outside of my specialty,” Kibbe said. “So I do think that maintaining that role will help keep me abreast of the latest and greatest in the surgical world now that I’m starting as dean.”

Outside of work, Kibbe is a self-described “sci-fi/fantasy nerd.”

“If it has the world ‘star’ in it, I’m pretty much going to be watching it,” Kibbe said. “Whether that’s ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ‘Stargate SG-1,’ you know it.”

Kibbe may get some of that interest from her father, a nuclear engineer whose background, she said, likely inspired her to enter the medical field. But there’s another reason.

“I’m often asked why I became a physician and surgeon,” Kibbe said. “I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was a freshman in high school. I had a pretty severe curvature and ended up requiring surgery. My experience with the surgeon who treated me really drew me to medicine. I just thought it was the coolest thing that he could operate on me and help fix me.” 

Joining Kibbe in Charlottesville is her husband, Marco Patti – an internationally known gastrointestinal surgeon who has extensive expertise in the surgical treatment of esophageal disorders, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, achalasia and esophageal cancer. Kibbe and Patti have two cats, Rocco and Sophia, and a Golden Retriever puppy named Enzo.

“Marco and I are so delighted to join this wonderful community,” Kibbe said. “I can’t wait to work with all of the talented people at the UVA School of Medicine and our partners across the University and in the community to build on UVA’s outstanding foundation of world-class patient care, research and education.”