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Clay Johnston Highlight
[As a leader], my role is to design this place so that it will succeed without me. It’s a weird thing to say, but that’s the goal, to get the whole system working so that I am less and less important over time.
About Clay
- Born and raised in Colorado.
- Comes from a long line of doctors, so he grew up with the expectation that he would also become a doctor.
- In college, he rebelled against this expectation and decided to drop out of his pre-med program and spend nine months in Italy studying architecture and design.
- Eventually, he switched back to medicine and attended Harvard Medical School after he realized he was more passionate about science and helping people.
- Completed his residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he specialized in neurology and later received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.
- Worked at UCSF for over 20 years where he rose in the academic ranks to become Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology and directed the Stroke Service.
- He now serves as the inaugural Dean of the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is working to build an inclusive and innovative health education program.
- Clay has authored more than 300 publications in scientific journals and has won several national awards—he is best known for his work on the prevention and treatment of strokes.
