Co-Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, UK HealthCare
Provost, University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky

Dr. Robert DiPaola is the Provost of the University of Kentucky and Co-Executive Vice President for Health Affairs (EVPHA).  Prior to that, Dr. DiPaola was the Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President of Clinical Academic Affairs for UK HealthCare.

Dr. DiPaola is a first-generation college graduate and completed his medical degree at the University of Utah. After graduation, he pursued an internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has considerable experience in translational research, and he was a prior Chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group GU Committee, which created and launched multiple national clinical trials.  He was also the prior director of the Rutgers NCI designated comprehensive cancer center and received several grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense and the American Cancer Society – to name a few, as well as over 200 publications, many in prestigious journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

He was recruited to UK as Dean of the College of Medicine 10 years ago and more recently as Provost and permanent Co-EVPHA, and has been working on many initiatives, including a refresh of the UKHC strategic plan, the launch of a service line structure to better serve patients, as well as enhanced programs and approvals for new facilities to enhance access to best serve the health and healthcare needs of Kentuckians.  The most recent service line developments include growing the cardiovascular service line and recruitment of the director of the Gill Heart & Vascular Institute.