Robert Tranquada was an Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Public Policy, University of Southern California. He was a former chair of the Board of Overseers of Claremont University Consortium and Chair Emeritus of the Board of Trustees at Pomona College. Formerly, he was Dean of the USC School of Medicine and Chancellor/Dean of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He was a member, Board of Directors of the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation; member, Board of Directors of Good Hope Medical Foundation; member, Board of Directors of Huntington Medical Research Institutes, Martin Luther King Community Hospital, and Mount San Antonio Gardens. He was a member, Institute of Medicine of National Academy of Science and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.