Robert M. (Bob) Lembo: Class of ’73; BA (with distinction), Biology; MD ’77, Cornell University Medical College.
While at Swarthmore, Bob covered sports for the Phoenix, served as student athletic trainer under Doug Weiss, and played varsity baseball under Ernie Prudente. After graduating from medical school, he completed his residency and post-doctoral fellowship training in pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He began his career in academic medicine at Case-Western Reserve University and returned to join the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine in 1986. In 1990, he was appointed Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Medical Education at New York University School of Medicine. From 2006 until 2021, Bob served as Executive Director of Graduate Medical Education at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and was Director of Education and Training at the NIH Clinical Center, the research hospital on the NIH campus, from 2017 until his retirement from government service in October, 2021. Bob is the recipient of a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Partnership Award; a Ruth L. Kirschstein Mentoring Award for exemplary performance while demonstrating significant leadership, skill and ability in serving as a mentor at the NIH; and both a National Institute of Mental Health and an NIH Director’s Group Award for the development of institutional resources for assisting distressed students and medical trainees.
Since graduation, Bob has remained active in sports, running in 5 K road races and, until 2018, playing competitive men’s softball. He claims to still be able to tape ankles on par with current athletic trainers.
