Penn President J. Larry Jameson likes to write short stories and vacation in national parks
In an interview, Jameson talked about talked about leading Penn during a tumultuous few years, as well as his youth, how he became interested in biomedical research and some things about him few know.
In high school, J. Larry Jameson would check out books by the stacks from the library, hungry for knowledge he felt he wasn’t getting in the classroom.
His behavior was flagged by the librarian at his North Carolina school, he recalled, and he was summoned to the principal’s office.
“We’re just making sure you’re staying on track,” he said the principal told him.
Jameson not only stayed on track, but went on to graduate at the top of his medical school class at the University of North Carolina and lead two of the most prestigious medical schools in the country, culminating in an appointment as the University of Pennsylvania’s president during one of the most tumultuous times in the school’s history.
In a rare interview this month, Jameson talked about leading Penn during a tumultuous few years, as well as his youth, how he became interested in biomedical research, and some things about him that few know. Despite serving in leadership roles for decades, not a lot has been written about the life of the 71-year-old endocrinologist.
Born in Georgia and raised in a fairly remote area of western North Carolina, Jameson said he spent a lot of time outdoors with his three younger brothers.
“My mother did a great job of keeping us all alive,” he said.
In 2015, he told The Lancet, a British medical journal, that he went to school in a place “where you kept quiet if you got an A grade in anything.”
When teachers returned his graded tests, Jameson said he would quickly turn them face down on the desk.
“I just assumed that was a normal thing for people to make fun of you for trying to achieve,” he said in the recent interview on Penn’s campus.
Jameson said he didn’t really begin to feel at home academically until he got to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he got his bachelor’s, medical degree, and doctoral degree in biochemistry.
His path toward medical research got started when he decided to avoid another summer helping his father, a wholesale grocery operator, with overnight shifts unloading heavy bags from 100-degree temperature rail cars.
He saw an ad for a summer research opportunity at UNC and applied. The team got a grant from the National Science Foundation.
“I never looked back after that,” he said. “I did biomedical research for the next 40 years. I don’t know if I was running away from the night shift or running toward biomedical research. Either way, it worked out very well.”
In medical school, one of the doctors who trained him was an endocrinologist who treated children with a growth hormone deficiency, spurring his interest in that field.
After medical school, Jameson did his clinical training in internal medicine and endocrinology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and then became an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the thyroid unit at Massachusetts General. Specializing in studies of the genetic basis of hormonal disorders, he joined Northwestern University’s medical school in 1993 and eventually became its dean.
Jameson was hired as dean of Penn’s medical school and executive vice president of the health system in 2011. He became interim president in December 2023 and was elevated to the permanent role in 2025.
He met his wife, Michele, a nurse, when they both worked at Massachusetts General.
» READ MORE: J. Larry Jameson is named Penn’s interim president
“I was struck by how she treated people with kindness and empathy — that has not changed,” he said.
The couple have three children; the youngest is a Penn graduate.
Here is how Jameson answered some personal questions:
Motto to live by: The Golden Rule [Which says to treat others the way you want to be treated].
Leadership style in a sentence: When in doubt, do what is best for the institution.
One thing you would want people to know about you that they likely would not know: I like to write short stories.
Favorite vacation spot: RV trips to National Parks
Favorite food: Root beer float on a summer day.
Favorite professional sport team: The Birds.
Favorite movie: It’s a Wonderful Life.
Favorite performing artist or band: I saw the Grateful Dead in Hollywood Bowl — I won’t say when.
Exercise of choice: Hiking.
Last book read: The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. About Churchill in the early days of World War II.
Favorite TV show to binge: The Madison — I like the scenery.
