Peter Traber, ’81, heads medical school, health system at University of Pennsylvania

Reprinted from the Philadelphia Inquirer
Feb. 18, 2000
By Inquirer Staff Writer: Karl Stark

Peter G. Traber did not make much of a mark on the gridiron. But he has more than made up for that.

Traber was a backup tight end on the highly regarded University of Michigan football team that went to the 1976 Orange Bowl. He had an athletic scholarship but did not play his senor year because of an injury to his neck that still pains him. “I could have used a new vertebra,” he said.

He likely will have new pains now. Traber, 44, an expert in colon cancer and the biology of the intestine, has had three major promotions at Penn in the last eight years. Yesterday, he got the biggest job of all, becoming head of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and dean of the School of Medicine.

Such jobs often go to health executives late in their careers. But Traber has risen on talent and on his close association with his predecessor, William Kelley. Traber’s colleagues say he has been mentored by Kelley, but is more approachable and easygoing than his former boss.

Traber said he was offered the job Tuesday night and was stunned by the opportunity.

He paid tribute to Kelley, saying, “He’ll be viewed as one of the most influential leaders in academic medicine of the last 25 years.”

Traber was more circumspect about what he would do to the four hospitals, several hundred physician practices, and the School of Medicine now under his supervision. “I think we will have more [cost-cutting] to do, as does every other academic medical center in the nation.”

Traber received his medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit in 1981, where he graduated with highest distinction and was recognized as one of the three top students in his class. After completing two residencies at Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago, Traber was hired under Kelley at Michigan’s department of medicine in 1987.

In 1992, Traber became one in a long line of Penn faculty recruited by Kelley from Michigan. Traber came to Penn as the division chief of gastroenterology.