Willard H. Dere is the Professor of Internal Medicine, B. Lue and Hope S. Bettilyon Presidential Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine for Diabetes Research; Associate Vice President for Research; Co-Director of the Utah Center for Clinical & Translational Science; and Co-Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center. He serves on the boards of four public biotechnology companies: BioMarin, Mersana Therapeutics, Radius Health, and Seres Therapeutics. He also serves on the scientific advisory board of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
Prior to joining the University of Utah, Dr. Dere was a senior leader in the biopharmaceutical industry. He held a number of different roles in clinical research and regulatory affairs at Eli Lilly from 1989 to 2003. In 2003, Dr. Dere moved to Amgen where he was senior vice president and head of global development at the time of his retirement in October 2014.
Dr. Dere received his M.D. from the University of California, Davis. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Utah, and in endocrinology/metabolism at the University of California at San Francisco.