Rachel Presti, MD, PhD has been named the Dr. J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine at Washington University. This professorship, established by John Doerr to honor the legacy of Dr. William “Bill” Campbell — an exceptional clinical infectious disease physician— recognizes outstanding contributions to clinically impactful research, transformative leadership, and exceptional patient care in infectious diseases. Bill Powderly, MD, Dr. Presti’s infectious diseases colleague and former division co-chief of the ID Division, previously held this professorship.
“Both Drs. Campbell and Powderly exemplify what is best about the field of infectious disease – intelligence, compassion and person-centered care,” Dr. Presti said. “Dr. Campbell’s compassion and care for people living with HIV (PWH) from the earliest days of the HIV epidemic in St. Louis has always been inspirational. Dr. Powderly’s leadership in research was foundational to the transformational improved outcomes that we see today. Both are both models that I strive to emulate.”
Since 2011, Dr. Presti has led the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit (ID-CRU). She has built upon the unit’s longstanding leadership in HIV research and expanded its clinical trial portfolio across multiple areas of infectious diseases. Under her direction, the unit has maintained robust funding through NIH, CDC, and industry sponsored programs, served as a leading national site for HIV treatment and prevention studies and vaccine studies, and played a pivotal role in advancing translational infectious diseases research at WashU Medicine. “It has been an incredibly honor and pleasure to be able to do clinical and translational research at the ID-CRU and within the ID clinic,” Dr. Presti said. “Every day I get to work with amazing people who really care about preventing, treating and curing infectious disease.”
With this professorship, Dr. Presti will have new flexibility to explore some additional pilot projects to understand and improve clinical care for PWH.
Learn more about Dr. Presti’s work and leadership at WashU as a clinician, researcher, educator and mentor.