TEMPLE, Texas (December 3, 2007) - Jules B. Puschett, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.S.N., F.A.H.A., F.A.A.A.S., senior executive associate dean for Program Development at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, has been promoted to vice dean for Program Development, effective Jan. 1.

The appointment was made by Christopher C. Colenda, M.D., M.P.H., the Jean and Thomas McMullin Dean of the HSC-COM.

A native of Hazleton, Pa., Dr. Puschett is an honors graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He trained in internal medicine at the University Hospital in Baltimore and in renal-electrolyte medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Puschett was chief of the Renal-Electrolyte Division at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine from 1980-90. From 1990-2005, he was chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine.

Dr. Puschett is the author of more than 350 articles and abstracts and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. These accolades include the Gloria P. Walsh Distinguished Teaching Award presented by the graduating class of the Tulane School of Medicine in 1996 and again in 2004, the Gift of Life Award by the National Kidney Foundation, the Distinguished Service Award of the American Heart Association, and the Founders¹ Medal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.

For the past 16 months, Dr. Puschett has been a professor of medicine at the HSC-COM, where he most recently served as a member of the dean¹s staff and a senior staff member at the Scott & White Hospital and Clinic in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. He also serves as a special assistant to the director at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System.

Dr. Puschett maintains a research laboratory that currently focuses on the pathophysiologic mechanisms and novel treatments of volume expansion-mediated hypertension.