James Lecture in Radiology and Radiological Sciences

James Lecture in Radiology and Radiological Sciences

A. Everette James, Jr., ScM, JD, MD, is recognized because of the basic and fundamental contributions that he made to Vanderbilt University by establishing, building and supporting a department which continues to attract the finest faculty and trainees as radiology residents, fellows, and graduate students. The department continues his goal to prepare the next generation of professionals in both basic and clinical radiological sciences. 

Everette James grew up in a farm community in the coastal plain of North Carolina. He graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina and Duke University Medical School. He completed his post-doctoral work at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine of England. Dr. James was also a graduate of the Program of Health Systems Management at the Harvard Business School. He was a Picker Advanced Academic Fellow under Russell H. Morgan at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. James served as a radiologist in Vietnam where he received the Army Commendation Medal and was recommended for the Bronze Star. Later he was given the Leadership Award for efforts on behalf of Vietnam Veterans and contributions to the committee for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was a founding member of the Parent’s Council for Out-of- State Students and has served on the Board of Visitors, the Chancellor’s Club and the Advisory Committee for the Center for the Study of the American South.

He was given the Distinguished Graduate Award of Duke University Medical School in 1993, and in 2002 received the Medical School’s Humanitarian Award. He served as a member of the Duke University Medical School Board and was a member of the James B. Duke Society, Davison Club and Alpha Omega Alpha.

At Johns Hopkins University, he was a member of the Dean’s Committee in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and a member of the Presidents Society. He also served as Radiology Representative to the American Medical Association, the American Association of Medical Colleges and the Administrative Board of the Council of Academic Societies.

In the early 1990s, Dr. James was a Scholar of the Institute of Medicine, a Visiting Scientist at the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health and Senior Program Officer of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. He also served as the Special Advisor to the Governor of North Carolina and Board of Science and Technology.

His professional appointments included: Harvard Teaching Fellow (1968-1969); Associate Professor, Director of Radiological Research Laboratories at Johns Hopkins Medical School (1971-1975); Chair and Professor of Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; Lecturer in Legal Medicine, Department of Medical Administration at Vanderbilt; Senior Research Associate, Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy, founded the Center for Medical Imaging Research (1975-1993). For more than 20 years, he also served as a consultant to the National Zoo of the Smithsonian and as a member of the National Council of Radiation Protection.

Dr. James was previously President of the Society of Chairmen of Academic Radiology Departments (SCARD), the Association of University Radiologists (AUR) and the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS). He received the Gold Medal Award from both AUR and ARRS.

Over the course of his life, Dr. James authored more than 540 articles and 23 books on medicine, law, ethics, art, folklore and fiction. He's been published in North Carolina Art Pottery and Collecting American Art. He was also well-known as an influential figure in the art world.

Throughout his career, he brought an arts focus to radiology and medicine. He was affiliated with numerous state and national art-related organizations and museum boards, and was a founding board member of the International Association of Art in Medicine and cover editor of the International Journal of Academic Medicine. He served on the founding board of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, was on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Pottery Center, and served on a Regional Advisory Committee for Preservation North Carolina.

Dr. James was a guest curator and lecturer on many art forums both nationally and internationally. His collections of 19th and early 20th century American art, North Carolina art pottery, North Carolina quilts, North Carolina waterfowl decoys, have been widely exhibited in the South. He and his wife have donated North Carolina pottery collections to the North Carolina Pottery Center and the Chapel Hill Museum. They recently donated their African/American quilt collection to the North Carolina Museum of History and had given the Pattie Royster James Collection of 102 NC quilts to NC State University.

In 1994, Dr. James won the North Carolina Carraway Award for Historic Preservation for restoring a primitive Baptist church in his hometown and converting it into a free-to-the-public museum devoted to Southern folklore. The church is now on the National Register of Historic Places. He also restored the Bank of Robersonville under the guidance of Preservation North Carolina and the National Trust. He later gifted the Bank to Preservation North Carolina.

He also donated various other art collections to museums and organizations across America, including: the Boston Athenaeum, Massachusetts General Hospital, Tufts Medical School, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Duke University Hospital, Cheekwood Art Museum, the Mint Museum, the Morris Museum, Mobile Museum of Art, Tennessee Museum of Art, the Cowan Collection at the Parthenon, Hickory Museum of Art, Asheville Museum of Art, Marion Arts Council, North Carolina State University Gallery of Art and Design, the Ackland Art Museum, and more.

Additionally, he's contributed collections to the Cosmos Club, Vanderbilt University, Fisk University, Pfeiffer University, Greensboro College, the Martin County Courthouse, the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University School of Veterinary Medicine, the John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University, the American Roentgen Ray Society, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene, and the Center for Academic Honors at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. James was a member of the Explorer’s Club of New York and the Cosmos Club of Washington and served on the Art Committee of the Cosmos Club. James served as a member of the board of the North Carolina State University Veterinary Medicine Foundation and spent a year as President of the Board. He was inducted into the Riddick Society of North Carolina State University.

Dr. James was also a Tennessee Squire, Kentucky Colonel and member of Leadership Nashville. He was also a lifelong member of Vietnam Veterans of America.

Until his death in 2017, Dr. James lectured at Johns Hopkins Medical Schools, and served as an adjunct Professor and Emeritus Chair at Vanderbilt and clinical professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Click here to read "The 'James Era' of Vanderbilt Radiology: A Personal Tribute by Arthur C. Fleischer, MD."