Paul E. Stanton, M.D.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Paul Stanton, Jr. graduated with his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory University in 1965. Shortly after, he earned his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia. With an internship, residency and fellowship in Florida, Georgia and Illinois, respectively, Dr. Stanton began his career as an attending physician at Atlanta’s Georgia Baptist Medical Center and spent the next ten years in a variety of positions including residency education program director, professor and chief of surgery, among others, at numerous facilities across the state.
In 1985, Dr. Stanton relocated to Johnson City, Tennessee and began a career in health care and education that would span more than 30 years. Beginning as Chief of Vascular Surgery and Associate Professor, then Chair of the Department of Surgery and soon full Professor and Dean of Medicine and Vice President for Health Affairs, in 1997 he became East Tennessee State University’s 8th President. Dr. Stanton’s commitment and dedication to ETSU brought great success to the institution.
He is responsible for the university’s receipt of its largest grant to date, $6 million from the Kellogg Foundation for Interdisciplinary Health Care Education, established the Gatton College of Pharmacy and oversaw the creation of ten new doctoral programs. During his 15 years as President, Dr. Stanton had the pleasure of awarding more than 31,000 diplomas to deserving and hard-working students.
But Dr. Stanton’s accomplishments do not stop there. As a committed community leader, he served on the Governor’s TennCare Committee on Graduate Medical Education, the Governor’s TennCare Roundtable and the Southern Regional Education Board. He is also the recipient of Business Tennessee’s “100 Most Powerful,” the Medical College of Georgia’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Johnson City-Jonesborough-Washington County Chamber of Commerce’s Hall of Fame designation.
A committed academic, passionate health care advocate and outstanding community leader, Dr. Paul E. Stanton, Jr. is a 2016 inductee of the Tennessee Health Care Hallof Fame.
