East Texas physician named new UT Tyler president

TYLER, Texas (KETK) – The University of Texas System Board of Regents unanimously voted to name Julie V. Philley, MD, the next president of the University of Texas at Tyler.

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She will begin on June 1, following the retirement of Kirk Calhoun on May 31. Philley is the university’s executive vice president for health affairs and vice provost and is a board-certified physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

“Dr. Philley is a highly respected health, academic, and community leader in Tyler,” UT Board of Regents Chairman and former Tyler mayor Kevin Eltife said. “She is an East Texas native with a deep understanding of our region and its needs, and she played a front-line role in helping build UT Tyler’s health enterprise to what it is today. She has the trust and admiration of individuals within the university and throughout Tyler.  I’ve witnessed her impact over the past twelve years, and we are confident she is ready to grow UT Tyler as a premier academic and health institution.”

Philley is from Overton and returned to the Piney Woods as an assistant professor of medicine at UT Health Tyler, where she continued research efforts.

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“I am grateful for so many experiences provided to me at UT Tyler that offered a valuable understanding of the complexities of higher education and health care, and I am eager to work in this new capacity with my colleagues and throughout the community to make UT Tyler the best it can be,” said Philley.  “I thank Chairman Eltife, the regents and Chancellor Milliken for their confidence in me and for their ongoing and significant investments that continue to propel UT Tyler forward.”

Philley was instrumental in launching the UT Tyler School of Medicine. She has also served as the chair of the Department of Medicine and a professor of medicine at the UT Health Science Center. She was named as a board member of the East Texas Medical Center Foundation in 2020.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas Woman’s University and studied medicine at UT Health Houston’s McGovern Medical School, completing an internal medicine residency program at Johns Hopkins University/Sinai Hospital and a fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas.

She is married to Richard Lee, the music director for the East Texas Symphony Orchestra and the Tyler Civic Chorale.

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