Robert T. Means, Jr., MD
Dean of Medicine
ETSU Quillen College of Medicine
Stanton-Gerber Hall, Suite C-200
Box 70694
Johnson City, TN 37614-1710
Office of the Dean email: deanofmedicine@etsu.edu
Dr. Robert T. Means Jr. currently serves as Dean of the James H. Quillen College of
Medicine at East Tennessee State University.
Means, who is board certified in Internal Medicine and Hematology, came to ETSU from
the University of Kentucky (UK) where he served as Executive Dean and Professor of
Internal Medicine and was a member of the hematology and blood and marrow transplant
division. He is also a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
A magna cum laude graduate of Rice University, Means earned his medical degree from
Vanderbilt University and completed an internal medicine residency at Baylor College
of Medicine before returning to Vanderbilt for a hematology fellowship.
He remained at Vanderbilt University as an Instructor and Assistant Professor in the
Hematology Division before he was recruited by the University of Cincinnati in 1992
to become Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Diagnostic Hematology
Laboratory, as well as Associate Chief of the Hematology/Oncology section at the Cincinnati
VA Medical Center.
In 1998, he joined the Medical University of South Carolina faculty as Professor of
Internal Medicine, Associate Director of the Hematology/Oncology Division, and Chief
of the Hematology/Oncology section at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. He became
Director of the Hematology/Oncology Division in 2000, serving until his recruitment
to the University of Kentucky.
UK named Means as Associate Chair for Research Division in the Department of Internal
Medicine in 2004 when he also became Chief of the Medical Service at Lexington VA
Medical Center. He was later appointed Interim Director of the Markey Cancer Center
from 2006-2009 and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine from
2007-2011. UK promoted him to Executive Vice Dean in 2011, and he was named Executive
Dean in 2012.
Means gained significant attention in the research arena for his work on the pathogenesis
of the anemia of chronic diseases. His studies have received funding support from
the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,
and he is the author of more than 120 original scientific reports, invited commentaries
or editorials, review articles, and book chapters.
He is an editor of the 12th and 13th editions of Wintrobe's Clinical Hematology and
of a forthcoming textbook on nutritional anemia. He serves on the editorial boards
of the International Journal of Hematology, Blood Research, and the American Journal
of the Medical Sciences, and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Investigative
Medicine, as well as a frequent referee for other journals.
His wife, Dr. Stacey McKenzie, grew up in Kingsport and graduated from Lynn View High
School. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is board
certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. They are the parents of three
children.
ETSU Quillen College of Medicine
Office of the Dean
Box 70694
Johnson City, TN 37614
Phone: (423) 439-6315
Fax: (423) 439-8090
