When John Glaspy, MD, MPH, strode out to the sphere at Dodger Stadium to throw out the primary pitch on the Dodgers’ sport towards the Miami Marlins on Aug. 20, he wasn’t simply fascinated with the baseball in his hand or his 5 grandkids trying on.

He was fascinated with the practically 5 a long time he’s spent at UCLA — first as a medical scholar, resident and fellow; after which as a clinician, researcher and professor who colleagues say has remodeled most cancers care at UCLA Health and past.

“When people say, ‘Why don’t you retire? You like fly-fishing. You could just jump in your car and go,’ one of the reasons not to do that is I still love what I’m doing,” Dr. Glaspy says. “But one more reason to not do it’s I’m able-bodied proper now, and I’m nonetheless paying again …

“UCLA made me. And I owe them for that and I owe the people of California for that.”

Healthcare All-Star

A professor of drugs on the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Glaspy was acknowledged by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a Healthcare All-Star for his many achievements at UCLA Health. (UCLA Health has been the Dodgers’ official medical partner since 2019).

With his lengthy and fruitful profession, Dr. Glaspy not often spends time tossing a baseball round, he says, however he was capable of heat up within the bullpen earlier than taking the sphere together with his eldest grandson.

“I think he was kind of proud,” says Dr. Glaspy, who’s on the Founders Board of the Simms-Mann/UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology. “The relationship between UCLA and the Dodgers is obviously one of mutual respect. I could feel it in the air with the Dodger people.”

As far as Dr. Glaspy’s colleagues are involved, the staff couldn’t have chosen a extra deserving honoree.

“Dr. Glaspy exemplifies all things that we want in our UCLA faculty in terms of contributions to research, education and excellent clinical care,” says Lee Rosen, MD, a professor of drugs in hematology-oncology on the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a former trainee below Dr. Glaspy. “I can think of many times, however many years after my fellowship, I still use skills I learned from John in how to speak with patients and conduct research. … And in terms of his direct patient care, there are millions of patients that John has touched and whose families he’s affected.”

A profession nicely spent

For Dr. Glaspy, it’s all a part of a rewarding profession at a dynamic tutorial establishment.

“When you’re younger, you want to make some personal contributions, and as you get older, you want to build something that’s going to be there after you’re gone and you want to raise up some young people who are better than you were,” he says. “The best thing I can point to is the people who worked with me when they were young and coming up and are out there doing wonderful things.”

Reflecting on his profession, Dr. Glaspy is grateful for the expansion of the college, analysis and translational science for most cancers therapy at UCLA Health. The oncology school, for instance, had six members when he began and has grown to lots of, he says.

“We’ve changed the way that cancer medicine is practiced. As a group, we’ve changed it dramatically,” Dr. Glaspy says.

“Once you are committed to something like this and have a critical mass, and have the values that the university inculcates in you, you end up with a very explosive — in a good way — mixture that can make everybody’s feeling of participation and authorship greater than it would have been if they were doing things by themselves. So it’s a good place to be.”