Clay Marsh, MD, is West Virginia University’s chief health officer, and serves as a member of President E. Gordon Gee’s leadership team. As WVU’s vice president for health sciences, he oversees five health sciences schools and three health campuses, and serves on the governing boards that determine policy and priorities for WVU Medicine and its component organizations. In addition, as executive dean, he is the leader of the WVU School of Medicine.
In his role as WVU’s health leader, he has mobilized resources across the University to help WVU Medicine become the leading employer in the state and to build signature programs of excellence in the areas of heart and vascular care, cancer prevention and treatment, women's and children’s health, trauma and critical care, and neurological health and disease. He also has focused resources on areas of emphasis, including opioid addiction, diabetes, and obesity.
As part of WVU’s efforts to address the opioid crisis in West Virginia and the nation, he organized a Substance Abuse Task Force to coordinate and strengthen the activities of the University’s patient care enterprise, research and teaching faculty, and administration in this area. He was a participant in the White House Symposium on the development of centers of academic excellence in addiction medicine and has participated in policy discussions with state and national leaders in education, research and public policy to advance these efforts.
He is a two-time graduate of West Virginia University, earning an undergraduate degree in biology in 1981 and a medical degree in 1985.