Bert Lubin Named Children's President & CEO

Children’s Hospital’s board of directors announced on Wednesday, Aug. 5 that Bertram Lubin, MD, longtime president of Children’s research institute, is the new president and chief executive offi cer of Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland. Dr. Lubin steps into his new role as the fi rst pediatrician to ever lead the 98-year- old medical center.

“As a pediatrician, I understand the healthcare needs of families and children, I understand the complexity of providing care and I know the challenges doctors face,” he explained. He pointed out that some of the nation’s premier children’s hospitals have physicians as their CEOs, including those in Boston, Philadelphia and Seattle.

“This is a special place,” Dr. Lubin said of Children’s. “Our clinical care is exceptional. But what makes us special is the personal touch; you can feel it when you walk down the hall. We’re like a family, a family that cares.”

Dr. Lubin had humble beginnings, growing up in Bellevue, Pa., a small town outside of Pittsburgh. His parents owned a fruit and vegetable market, where he worked from a very young age. He remembers slicing up fruit and selling it in little baskets from his own little stand, a young entrepreneur.

The young Bert Lubin went on to college at Pennsylvania’s Washington and Jefferson College and then to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, followed by subspecialty training at Boston Children’s Hospital. He then joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor of pediatrics for six years.

Dr. Lubin came to Children’s Hospital Oakland in 1973 to be division chief of Hematology/Oncology. He was attracted by the opportunity to work in a medical center devoted to children with a diverse patient population. He saw the opportunity to create an academic, non-university-based medical center that excelled in primary, secondary and tertiary care, while maintaining a commitment to research and medical education.

By reaching out and recruiting talented young physicians, like Elliott Vichinsky, MD, now the division chief, the Hematology/Oncology department grew dramatically under his leadership. Today, the department is recognized nationally and internationally for its outstanding care of children with malignancies, sickle cell disease, thalassemia and hemophilia.

In 1980, Dr. Lubin became the director of medical research at Children’s Hospital Oakland. Under his leadership, basic, clinical and translational research activities expanded exponentially. He transformed a small research programinto a $50 million-a-year enterprise called Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. In 2008, CHORI ranked sixth in the nation for National Institutes of Health awards to children’s hospitals.

CHORI investigators have organized programs in global health, cellular therapy, and personalized medicine. Grant support has increased 100-fold under Dr. Lubin’s leadership due to the outstanding investigators he has recruited and supported.
The space devoted to research has also dramatically expanded with the acquisition of the historic University High School facility located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and the construction of the HEDCO Health Science Center. Plans to construct an Urban Health Institute on CHORI property are under consideration.

To commercialize advances made at CHORI that could benefi t the hospital, Dr. Lubin initiated a successful technology transfer program called CHORI Ventures. This program has had great success since it was initiated fi ve years ago. As a result, CHORI has become a catalyst for technology development in Oakland.

Dr. Lubin is a member of the Berkeley Health Task Force and the Oakland Mayor’s Health Council. He serves on the board of the Jazz School in Berkeley and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. He’s also a jazz drummer in his own right. He was also a member of the founding board of Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art. To stay fi t, Dr. Lubin plays tennis. He admits to watching reruns of Frasier at night and enjoying a romantic comedy or two on television.