King Holmes, MD, PhD, the founding chair of the Department of Global Health and a long-standing leader in the Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the UW School of Medicine, passed away on Sunday, March 9, 2025, at the age of 87.
Holmes mentored and inspired generations of people around the world to transform sexual and reproductive health through research, clinical practice and interdisciplinary training. He is universally acknowledged as the “father” of the field of academic sexually transmitted infection (STI) research, epidemiology, prevention and care. His leadership in this arena brought improved care and destigmatization for both patients and researchers in the U.S. and abroad.
A local leader with a global impact
At UW, he was one of the early architects and thought leaders of our internationally recognized Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases where, in 1989, with the concurrence of the deans of the six Health Sciences Schools, he established the Center for AIDS & STD to serve as an umbrella for all AIDS and STD-related clinical, research and training programs at UW and affiliated institutions. His vision for the UW’s expansion into international health led to the rapid development of groundbreaking and high-impact programs in HIV and other STIs domestically and globally.
Photo courtesy of Holmes’ family.
Holmes served as chief of medicine at Harborview Medical Center from 1984 to 1989. At Harborview, he was instrumental in expanding on-site research with the construction of the Harborview Research & Training and the Ninth & Jefferson buildings, housing the Seattle King County Sexual Health Clinic, the Center for AIDS & STD, the International Clinical Research Center, and laboratory research on a variety of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. During his career, Holmes received many honors and awards, including the Canada Gairdner Foundation Global Health Award, the Alexander Fleming Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and election to the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Microbiology.
In the past two decades, Holmes turned his attention to establishing a vast network of collaborations globally, which positioned UW to become an early leader in global health. He worked closely with colleagues at key bilateral and multilateral agencies and other global health organizations, including the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Health Resources & Services Administration, U.S. Agency for International Development, President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Gates Foundation, repeatedly being asked to advise on new directions or play a leading role in new initiatives. He galvanized leaders at universities across the country in the formation of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.
In 2007, as the inaugural chair, Holmes launched UW’s new Department of Global Health, based in both the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health. He worked closely with colleagues across the university to create a highly interdisciplinary department that not only bridged the Schools of Medicine and Public Health but also harnessed the strengths of all 18 of UW’s schools and colleges and welcomed outstanding affiliate faculty from around the globe. To facilitate innovation, he built the department as a dynamic group of cutting-edge centers, programs and initiatives designed to work together with low-and-middle-income country partners both on research and teaching on capacity strengthening and program and policy development.
Holmes was directly involved with the development and leadership of two of the centers, the UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research, which works with more than 700 investigators around the world in support of HIV research and researchers’ career development, and the International Training and Education Center for Health, a global network working in more than 25 countries, to build long-term capacity in health systems strengthening; human resources for health; and targeted, data-driven interventions and research that are responsive to local needs.
Holmes was dedicated to training future generations of STI and HIV researchers and created an internationally renowned training program that has been funded by NIH since 1974 and has supported over 250 predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees, 80% of whom hold faculty or senior research positions in academia, public health or government.
More on Holmes
Learn more about Holmes’ life and work at the UW Medicine Newsroom. A special tribute to Holmes was published in the 50th Anniversary edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
