S. Andrew Josephson, MD | Dean, School of Medicine

S. Andrew Josephson, MD, serves as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor of medical affairs, helping to set the school’s policy and vision in support of research, education, patient care, and public service, and overseeing the school’s 28 departments, six interdisciplinary centers, and eight organized research units. In this position, he manages the school’s clinical partnership with UCSF Health, as well as the UCSF-affiliated Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) and the San Francisco VA Medical Center. 

Before being appointed dean in June of 2026, Josephson chaired the UCSF Department of Neurology for a decade. He is the Carmen Castro Franceschi and Gladyne K. Mitchell Neurohospitalist Distinguished Professor in the Department of Neurology. 

Josephson is the founder of UCSF's Neurohospitalist Program, which pioneered the neurohospitalist model of care, and he specializes in difficult-to-diagnose inpatient neurologic conditions. He serves as an attending physician on the neurology stroke, consult, and neurohospitalist services at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, as well as in the neurointensive care unit at ZSFG. 

His research interests include improving neurologic care delivery, quality, and safety in hospitalized patients, neurologic education, delirium, and the contribution of stroke to dementia. He is editor-in-chief of JAMA Neurology, an editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, and an honorary board member of the Neurohospitalist Society which he co-founded. 

For nearly two decades, Josephson taught and directed the popular Brain, Mind and Behavior course required of all UCSF medical students, and he has trained dozens of neurology residents and fellows at UCSF. He has won many teaching awards, including being selected twice to present the keynote address for the School of Medicine commencement; the Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching; the Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award; and the Robert Layzer Golden Toe Award for resident teaching in Neurology. 

A graduate of Stanford University, Josephson earned his medical degree at Washington University in Saint Louis. He completed his internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology at UCSF and served as chief resident. He completed fellowships in neurovascular neurology (stroke) and behavioral neurology at UCSF and is board certified in vascular neurology and neurocritical care.