David M. Carlisle

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science sits in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles. In July 2011, the university named David M. Carlisle its president and chief executive officer, and under his leadership it moved to establish the first and only historically Black medical degree program west of the Mississippi River.

Carlisle had come to the work through clinical medicine and state government alike. Raised in Los Angeles, he studied chemistry at Wesleyan University and earned his medical degree at Brown University. He trained at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and cared for patients at Watts Health Center, a community clinic serving South Los Angeles. He earned a master's in public health and a doctorate in health services research at UCLA, then spent twenty years on the UCLA medical faculty.

From 2000 to 2011, he directed California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, serving eleven years under three governors. The office licenses the state's health facilities, collects data on care and finances scholarships and loan repayment for clinicians who commit to underserved communities. UCLA's account credits him with developing health-disparities reports and expanding those scholarship programs.

At Charles R. Drew University, Carlisle helped guide the development of an independent four-year medical-degree program, an effort built on decades of partnership with UCLA and the work of faculty, staff and community supporters. CDU announced his election to the National Academy of Medicine, crediting him with integrating the university's colleges of medicine, health sciences and nursing into a single university.

The university's leadership page continued to list him as president and chief executive officer in 2026, when the Los Angeles Business Journal named him to its LA500 class. His undergraduate alma mater marked the same season with an honorary doctorate, fifty years after he left Wesleyan with his chemistry degree. In a February 2026 interview, he described students motivated to return to the communities where they grew up.

His career has moved between running a state agency that measured health needs and leading a university that trains physicians to serve them.

His published work spans health policy, quality of care and diversity in medical education.