Dr. David Lucas named Director of Anatomic Pathology Division

By Vashni Santee | November 4 2015

Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that our own Dr. David Lucas will be the new director of Anatomic Pathology (AP) in our department beginning on December 1, 2015. With Dr. Lucas’ new appointment, Dr. Jeffrey Myers will step down as Director of AP, allowing him to focus efforts as Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs and Quality. Dr. Lucas is a true Michigander who grew up in Detroit, completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, went to medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine and did residency training also at Wayne State. This was followed by fellowships in surgical pathology and bone/soft tissue at the Mayo Clinic before coming back to Wayne State as a faculty member in 1993. In 2003, he was recruited to the University of Michigan as an Associate Professor, bone and soft tissue consultant and surgical pathologist where he rapidly rose through the ranks to become a professor in 2006 and director of Surgical Pathology and the Surgical Pathology Fellowship Program in 2010. In addition to co-authoring two books and many chapters on soft tissue/bone pathology, he has published over 100 manuscripts in the area of bone and soft tissue pathology with major contributions in studies that identified clonality in desmoid fibromatosis, variants of dedifferentiated liposarcoma, and clinicopathological features of undifferentiated small cell sarcoma with CIC-DUX4 fusion for which we now have a diagnostic FISH assay. He has collaborated on multiple clinical trials as well as with other research groups, including the NIH SARC Sarcoma SPORE where he serves as co-director of the pathology core. In addition to being an outstanding diagnostician, he is a highly respected teacher, having received three residency teaching awards. With this appointment, he will become the A. J. French Professor of Anatomic Pathology upon approval by the Regents. Dr. Lucas lives in downtown Ann Arbor with his wife, Barbara where they enjoy walking and biking to get around. They have a son, who is a musician and daughter, who is an elementary school teacher. Please join me in wishing congratulations to Dr. Lucas in his new appointment as Director of Anatomic Pathology as well as thanking Dr. Myers for an outstanding nearly 10 years of service to our department in this leadership role.

With best wishes,

Charles A. Parkos, M.D., Ph.D.
Carl V. Weller Professor and Chair