Tribute: John C. Larosa Remembered for Leadership in Academic Medicine

John C. LaRosa, a prominent physician-scientist and nationally recognized authority on cholesterol and cardiovascular disease who served as chancellor of Tulane University Medical Center from 1994 to 1999, died on September 23, 2025. He was 84.

LaRosa joined Tulane after two decades on the faculty of George Washington University, where he served as Dean for Clinical Affairs and Research and helped establish one of the nation’s Lipid Research Clinics. His background as a leading researcher who wrote more than 230 peer-reviewed papers and served as a frequent commentator on national and international broadcast programs made him a high-profile health science leader.

“John was a wonderful chancellor for the health sciences at Tulane,” said Paul K. Whelton, Show Chwan Health System Endowed Chair in Global Public Health at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. LaRosa recruited Whelton to Tulane. “He espoused academic excellence, was a champion for all the right causes and people, and he was a leader of great integrity.”

At Tulane, LaRosa oversaw the School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine during a period of strategic growth in biomedical research and clinical programs. Under his leadership, the university expanded its research portfolio with major federal grants and helped launch new initiatives in gene therapy, women’s health, infectious diseases and cancer research. He also collaborated with the Louisiana State University Center for Gene Therapy Research and played a key role in significantly increasing research and philanthropic funding across the health sciences.

Colleagues at Tulane recall LaRosa as a leader who emphasized academic excellence, integrity and faculty development. Several university administrators credit him with shaping their careers and strengthening the institution’s leadership culture during his tenure. His profile as a scientist and administrator also elevated Tulane’s national visibility at a time of growing competition among academic medical centers.

In 1999, LaRosa was appointed president of the State University of New York’s Downstate Health Sciences University, where he later oversaw the creation of a School of Public Health, expanded clinical facilities and advanced major biotechnology initiatives. He served in that role until 2012.

John Charles LaRosa was born in Pittsburgh on February 17, 1941. He is survived by his wife Judie LaRosa, his daughter Jennifer, his son Christopher, and six grandchildren.