M. Boyd Gillespie, MD, MSc, FACS, has been named chair of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC).

Gillespie comes to UTHSC from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where he was a professor and vice chair of Clinical Outreach in the Department of Otolaryngology ­– Head and Neck in the College of Medicine, and director of the MUSC Salivary Clinic and the Karl Storz U.S. Reference Center for Salivary Endoscopy.

A graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he completed his residency and fellowship, Dr. Gillespie earned a master’s in Clinical Research from the MUSC Department of Biometry and Epidemiology. He is board certified in otolaryngology and sleep medicine.

Throughout his career, Dr. Gillespie has focused on the treatment of head and neck cancer, thyroid tumors, voice and airway disorders, swallowing disorders and sleep apnea. He was one of the first four surgeons in the United States to perform endoscopic salivary surgery, and has educated many of the surgeons who perform the technique in the U.S. He is also the author of a textbook on salivary gland preservation surgery.

He has received more than $1 million in research funding over the course of his career and has published more than 120 academic papers. Gillespie received the Presidential Citation from the American Head and Neck Society in 2014 and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.