Thomas Grant Irons, M.D.

Dr. Thomas Grant Irons, associate vice chancellor for health sciences and professor of pediatrics, is among the most distinguished faculty members in the history of ECU’s Brody School of Medicine. In recognition of his contributions to the health sciences education and outreach locally and globally, Irons received the 2011 UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Public Service. He is a four-time winner of the Clinical Science Faculty Award presented by graduating students at the Brody School of Medicine. In honor of his selfless dedication to medicine and public service, the BSOM Class of 2006 established the annual Thomas G. Irons Award in Medical Professionalism.

As a BSOM faculty for nearly four decades and as a private citizen, Irons has focused on the needs of abused children, disabled children, at-risk teens, farm families, and the rural uninsured. Irons has thus continued a tradition of public service pioneered by his father, Dr. Frederick Irons, campus physician and director of the Student Health Center, and his mother, Dr. Malene Irons, founding director of the ECU Malene Irons Developmental Evaluation Clinic. Like his parents, Irons has devoted his personal and professional life to improving access to quality health care for the people of eastern North Carolina.

A graduate from Davidson College, Irons completed his medical degree at the UNC School of Medicine. From 1975-1978, he served in the U.S. Army in West Germany, there developing a child abuse prevention program. After returning to the U.S., Irons practiced pediatrics in Raleigh before joining the medical faculty at ECU in 1981. At ECU, Irons continued his efforts toward child abuse prevention. He also secured grants to launch programs addressing the needs of disabled children, adolescents, and other at-risk groups. In 1989, he was appointed associate dean of BSOM. In 1995, he was named associate vice chancellor for health sciences.

After coordinating health services at Pitt County emergency shelters in the wake of Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd, Irons helped found Access East, Inc., providing first-class health services for underserved residents of eastern North Carolina. Irons has also served as medical director of the James D. Bernstein Community Health Center, HealthAssist, and the NC Agromedicine Institute. Irons has served on the boards of Access East, the Eastern Carolina Community Health Consortium, the NC Care Share Alliance, the NC Foundation for Advanced Healthcare Programs, the NC Medical Society Foundation, and the NC Community Practitioner Program. In addition to the UNC Board of Governors Award, Irons has received the Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award from the East Carolina Council Boy Scouts of America, the Champions of Change in Medicine Award from the NC Institute of Medicine, the Alumni Merit Award and the Medical Alumni Distinguished Service Award from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, the Dean’s Choice Award and Legacy of Leadership Award from the ECU College of Human Ecology, and the Clinical Science Faculty Award at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine.

Sources

• “Dr. Tom Irons: Pirate Profiles.” Meet Our Pirates. http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/mktg/ECU_Pirate_Profile_DrIrons.cfm.
• Drake, Jackie. “Irons to Deliver ECU Address.” Daily Reflector. December 7, 2011.
• “East Carolina University Physician Receives UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Public Service. ECU News Services.” http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/irons.cfm#.WrVFhsgh2i4.
• Irons, Thomas G. and Ruth Marie Walker-Moskop, interviewer. “Oral history Dr. Tom Irons 6/12/00 and 6/14/2000: Greenville, N.C.” ECU Laupus Health Sciences Library.
• Irons, Thomas and Dale A. Newton. Community-acquired Respiratory Infections in Children. Philadelphia : W.B. Saunders, 1996.
• Irons, Thomas, Dale A. Newton, and Pablo Sánchez Creus. Infecciones respiratorias extrahospitalarias en los niños. México: McGraw-Hill/Interamericana de México, 1997.
• “Tom Irons.” MedServe. http://www.med-serve.org/tom-irons.html.

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