Alvin C. Powers MD

Alvin C. Powers is the Joe C. Davis Chair in Biologic Science and Professor of Medicine, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He is also the Director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, Chief of the Vanderbilt Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the Director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center, a NIH-funded center that facilitates the diabetes-related research of more than 120 Vanderbilt scientists.

Dr. Powers is a physician-scientist whose research on type 1 and type 2 diabetes focuses on pancreatic islet biology, development and function. He is also the Director of the Vanderbilt Medical Student Research Training Program in Diabetes and Endocrinology, and the Coordinator for the NIDDK Medical Student Research Program in Diabetes.

Dr. Powers has been part of the American Diabetes Association's meetings and efforts since 1986. Locally, he has supported the Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes and the Middle Tennessee Tour de Cure and serves on the Association's Nashville Community Leadership Board. Nationally, he served on the Finance Committee, Scientific Sessions Planning Committee, and as Chair of the Research Policy Committee in addition to his service as a member of the national Board of Directors.

Dr. Powers received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences. After training in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center, he trained in endocrinology and diabetes at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.