President’s Office

David M. Carlisle, MD, PhD 

Presently serving since 2011 as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine (CDU) and Science in the Watts-Willowbrook area of Los Angeles County, Dr. Carlisle is a published author in health policy, quality of care, medical education diversity and eliminating health disparities. A board-certified Internal Medicine specialist, his clinical work has always revolved around caring for the underserved.

President Carlisle graduated from Wesleyan University, majoring in chemistry. He then earned his Medical Degree from Brown University, his Master of Public Health and his PhD in Health Services Research from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.  He completed a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program fellowship at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 1990.

Dr. Carlisle has been affiliated with the UCLA Department of Medicine for approximately thirty-one years, becoming a tenured Associate Professor in 1998. He is presently a Professor of Medicine and Public Health at CDU and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

In 2007, Dr. Carlisle became a Senior Fellow at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and presently is also a member of the Advisory Council of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. In 2018 he was appointed as a member of the California Future Health Workforce Commission.  In 2018, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees for the California Health Care Foundation, is a member of the Futuro Health Community Board, and served as a founding member of the BioscienceLA Board.

Dr. Carlisle has lived in Los Angeles and Sacramento for almost 40 years. He is married to Dr. Sylvia Carlisle and together they have two children, David and Aimee, both defense attorneys.