Susan Smyth, dean of the College of Medicine and executive vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, died late last month after a battle with cancer. She was 57 years old.
Dr, Smyth began her tenure as dean on June 1, 2021, and continue to work until a few days before her death. Before coming to the University of Arkansas, she was the chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the director of the Gill Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Dr. Smyth also served as the senior associate director for the Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translation Science. She also had a part-time appointment with the Lexington Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
A native of North Carolina, Dr. Smyth graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She earned a medical degree and a doctorate of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Dr. Smyth completed her internal medicine residency at the University Medical Center in Stony Brook, New York, and her cardiology fellowships at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City and the University of North Carolina.