Romney Humphries, PhD, director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine and professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named the department’s vice chair for Clinical Affairs, effective Jan. 1, 2026.
Humphries also will serve as executive medical director of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Clinical Service Center. In both positions, she will succeed Adam Seegmiller, MD, PhD, professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, who last week was named chair of the department effective upon the retirement of current chair Alice Coogan, MD, on Dec. 31.
“Dr. Humphries is a nationally recognized expert in antimicrobial resistance and is a highly cited researcher,” said Coogan, the Dorothy Beryl and Theodore R. Austin Professor of Pathology. “She has taken on increasing leadership roles in the department (including serving as section medical director of Clinical Microbiology and service medical director for the Infectious Disease Laboratories) and has proved herself as a superbly effective leader.”
As the new vice chair for Clinical Affairs, Humphries will oversee faculty activities in the department’s five clinical divisions, while continuing in her role as director of Laboratory Medicine, pending the recruitment of a new division director. In partnership with David Vinson, Senior Vice President for Diagnostic Laboratory Services, she will be responsible for the overall operational and strategic leadership of Vanderbilt Medical Laboratories (VML).
“This is such a dynamic and exciting time for VUMC and VML,” Humphries said. “I am excited and honored to take on this new role.”
Humphries earned her PhD in medical microbiology and bacteriology from the University of Calgary and completed a clinical postdoctoral fellowship in medical and public health laboratory microbiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She was assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and served as section chief of Clinical Microbiology at UCLA before coming to Vanderbilt in 2020.
A diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a licensed clinical microbiologist, Humphries has published extensively in the field of antimicrobial resistance. Her lab evaluates methods to improve the speed and accuracy of identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and novel antimicrobials to treat these infections.
She is among nine current Vanderbilt faculty members in the 2024 list of “Highly Cited Researchers” whose papers have been cited frequently by other scientists. She also received the 2024 John V. Bergen Excellence Award from the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) for her contributions to antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
Humphries has served on the CLSI Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee, the College of American Pathologists Microbiology Committee, the American Society for Microbiology Professional Standards Committee, and as vice chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Diagnostics Committee. This summer she was named editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
As director of Laboratory Medicine, Humphries led the division through a period of unprecedented growth, recruited many new faculty members, and played a key role in developing VUMC’s new, 110,000-square-foot clinical laboratory facility, which opened in MetroCenter in 2024.
“Dr. Humphries has been a driving force in our efforts to expand and strengthen the laboratory,” Seegmiller said. “Most importantly, she has proven to be an excellent example of the culture of patient care, teamwork and respect that we espouse.”
