- Burnett School College of Medicine
A founding member of MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, a charter class scholarship donor at the UCF College of Medicine is joining the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees.
Governor Rick Scott appointed Dr. Clarence H. Brown III to a five-year term on July 25. Brown is an affiliated faculty member at the College of Medicine.
“It is an honor for me to receive this appointment by the Governor,” Brown said. “I am delighted to work with the leaders at UCF, men and women I have known and respected for decades. It has been truly amazing to watch the growth of UCF over the years and I am looking forward to this opportunity to be a part of the future of this institution.”
Brown, 72, is vice president of development for oncology for the Orlando Health Foundation and president emeritus of MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando.
In 2010, thee first-year medical students were in Haiti working at a tent hospital in Port-au-Prince after that nation’s devastating earthquake. There, they met 20-year-old Ginel Thermosy who was suffering from advanced leukemia. Doctors have given him just two weeks to live. Determined to help Thermosy, medical student Anika Mirick, contacted Brown, her scholarship donor. He immediately agreed to take Thermosy.
“Without any hesitation, we said yes. I know Anika’s compassion and caring as a young medical student. I certainly wanted to honor her request,” Brown said at the time. “I’m hoping that they see altruism as an important component of being a physician.”
Thanks to the treatment he received at MD Anderson, Thermosy lived almost three years and became an active part of Orlando’s Haitian community. Brown, who was Mirick’s mentor through her four years of medical school, attended her graduation and was honored at a donor dinner just days before graduation.
Brown earned his medical degree from Emory University in Atlanta and trained in internal medicine, hematology and oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.
The Florida native has been a strong advocate for quality care in the community and the state. Brown has served as president of the Orange County Medical Society, and he is a former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Orlando Health Foundation.
He has served on the Florida Division Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society. From 2001 through 2003, Brown was chairman of Florida’s Cancer Research and Advisory Council. Brown was named one of the “Best Doctors in America” from 1996 to 2011, and in 1998 he was named one of the 25 most influential leaders in health care in Central Florida. He has been identified by Orlando Magazine as one of the “Best Doctors in Orlando.”
Brown succeeds Micky Grindstaff, a partner in the law firm Shutts & Bowen LLP. Grindstaff served as chair of the UCF Board of Trustees for two years and as a member of the board for five years. He is a past chair of the UCF Foundation and a past director of the UCF Athletic Association and UCF Alumni Association.
Brown’s appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.