By Tamara Robinson
Jan. 30, 2025 | LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine named Deanna Sasaki-Adams, M.D., MBA, as chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, effective March 1.
A noted vascular and skull base neurosurgeon, Sasaki-Adams currently serves as the Department of Neurosurgery’s vice chair of Quality and Clinical Operations, medical director of UAMS neurosurgery services and associate program director for the Neurosurgery Residency program. She also holds a professor faculty appointment in the department.
“Dr. Sasaki-Adams will provide strong and innovative leadership for our clinical, educational and research programs in neurosurgery,” said Steven Webber, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine and executive vice chancellor. “She has already excelled in many leadership roles at UAMS and the University of North Carolina.”
Sasaki-Adams joined UAMS in 2023 from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, where she served as the section chief of cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgery.
She is highly regarded for her expertise in neurovascular disease, including the specialized treatment of aneurysm clipping, along with intracranial bypass procedures and treatments for arteriovenous malformations, stroke and carotid occlusive disease, and skull base tumors.
Sasaki-Adams received her medical degree at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She completed her neurosurgery residency at UNC, serving as chief resident in her final year. She completed a fellowship in skull base and open cerebrovascular neurosurgery at Saint Louis University before joining the UNC faculty in 2011. She continued her training with a fellowship in interventional neuroradiology at UNC in 2013-2015. She earned her Master of Business Administration in the Global Executive MBA Program at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 2023.
She is an active member in the cerebrovascular section of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons/American Association of Neurological Surgeons (CNS/AANS) and the North American Skull Base Society. Outside of neurosurgery, Sasaki-Adams’ national activities include serving since 2021 as an Administrative Board Member on the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS), a division of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) that works to identify crucial issues facing medical school faculty and academic societies and serves as a voice for both constituencies.
Sasaki-Adams also has shown a strong commitment to fostering executive leadership and business skills development at all levels of academic medicine. In 2023, she was an inaugural graduate of the Program Executive Leadership in Healthcare Track in the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program at Drexel College of Medicine.
At UAMS, she is co-leading the College of Medicine’s new Business Certificate Program for Residents and Fellows, a collaboration with the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business for upper-level residents and fellows who want to acquire critical business skills and knowledge to effectively navigate the complex health care landscape.
Sasaki-Adams replaces John D. Day, M.D., as chair. T. Glenn Pait, M.D., director of the UAMS Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, served as interim chair.