Regents approve Orthopaedic Surgery chair and interim dean to lead medical education program

The University of Michigan Board of Regents today (May 20) approved the appointments of Michelle S. Caird, M.D., as chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, effective May 1; and Steven E. Gay, M.D., M.S., as interim associate dean for medical student education, effective July 1.

Michelle S. Caird, M.D. 

Caird, who also was appointed the Harold W. and Helen L. Gehring Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, has served in a number of leadership roles within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Michigan Medicine. In 2015, she was appointed program director of the Orthopaedic Residency Program and associate chair for education for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. She has served as chief of the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics and as interim chair of the department since May 2019. She currently is a co-chair of the subcommittee on education and clinical practice of the Michigan Medicine Anti-Racism Oversight Committee, and she is dedicated to increasing diversity and inclusion among orthopaedic surgeons to positively impact patients.

She earned her undergraduate engineering degree and medical degree from the University of Michigan. After completing an orthopaedic surgery residency here, and a fellowship in pediatric orthopaedic surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, she joined the U-M faculty in 2004 as a lecturer in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery. She rose through the ranks to associate professor in 2014 and professor in 2020. She was named the Larry S. Matthews Collegiate Professor of Orthopaedics in 2016.

Clinically, Caird treats multiple orthopaedic conditions faced by children, including fractures, spinal deformity, and unequal or bowed legs. As co-creator of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Multidisciplinary Clinic, her areas of expertise include treating fractures and spinal deformity in children with osteogenesis imperfecta. In her collaborative research, she investigates bone healing in this disease and other diseases of low bone mass in children.

She is a member of the board of directors of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and represented POSNA in Northern Europe as one of the 2012 POSNA traveling fellows, where she studied and taught at major European centers. She has also served on multiple committees for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Scoliosis Research Society, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Steven E. Gay, M.D., M.S.

Gay, who will serve as interim associate dean for medical student education until a successor is appointed, is a member of the Medical School leadership team as our assistant dean for admissions. He also is an associate professor of internal medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and director of Critical Care Support Services.

He received his medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and served his internship and residency in internal medicine at Michael Reese Medical Center in Chicago. After completing a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Michigan Medicine, Gay earned a master’s degree in clinical study design and biostatistics at the U-M School of Public Health.

Since joining the U-M faculty in 2000, Gay has been actively engaged in the Medical School Admissions Program, where he serves on the Admissions Committee, and its executive committee. As assistant dean for admissions, he has overseen the recruitment of outstanding, diverse classes of medical students since 2007.

His clinical and research interests include exercise physiology, pathophysiology of interstitial lung disease and outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He is a member of the American Thoracic Society, and has served as a consultant and member of the FDA Advisory Committee on Pulmonary and Allergy Medications.