University of Tennessee

Dr. Peter Buckley serves as the 11th Chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, overseeing six colleges, four campuses, and 880 clinical-educational training sites across Tennessee, dedicated to the UT Health Sciences vision of Healthy Tennesseans Thriving Communities. 

Peter has over 30 years of leadership experience in US academic healthcare, serving two prior universities as School of Medicine Dean (including twice as interim academic health system CEO) in Georgia and in Virginia, and previously as Department of Psychiatry chair and medical director for a 3-hospital public mental healthcare system in Ohio. 

Born in Dublin, Peter earned his medical degree from University College Dublin in 1986. He completed a psychiatry residency and research fellowship at St. John of God Psychiatric Services. He emigrated to the U.S. to pursue research on schizophrenia, and since then, he has contributed more than 370 articles and 90 book chapters on aspects of the neurobiology and treatment of schizophrenia.  He has also authored or edited 20 books on schizophrenia and related topics, and he is the senior author of a postgraduate textbook of psychiatry.

Presently, Peter Chairs the Board of Intealth (which oversees the international physician workforce who come to America to work/train) and also serves on the boards of several foundations, community and health organizations, and he has been acknowledged by the Memphis Business Journal’s “Power 100” listing since 2023 as one of the most influential leaders.

Peter and his wife Leonie have two adult, American-born sons, John and Brian, living in LA and Atlanta, respectively. Peter and Leonie are delighted to live in Memphis (a city with a vibrant Irish community) and to walk their great Dane, “ Finn Mac Cool,” alongside the beautiful Mississippi River.