Hubert Ballard, MD

Hubie Ballard Election Platform 2024

A Kentucky native, I was born and raised on a farm near Bardstown where I graduated from Nelson County High School. After high school, I attended the University of Kentucky (UK) and graduated from the College of Engineering in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering prior to matriculating to the UK College of Medicine. 

In 1996, I continued training in a combined residency at UK in internal medicine/pediatrics, and served as the pediatrics chief resident in 2001, before completing my fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine in 2004.  Since my fellowship, I have been faculty in the department of pediatrics, and am currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Special Title Series. 

My service to UK and the College of Medicine extends beyond my faculty appointment and into leadership positions in representing faculty, mentoring students and helping administer critical clinical programs and initiatives. 

For example, I have played an active role on the Financial Aid/Scholarship Committee (2005-08) and Faculty Council (2008-11, 2019-22), in which I served as Faculty Council chair (2020-21). I currently serve on the Admissions Committee (2021-current), along with ongoing roles as a House Mentor in the Learning Communities and teaching responsibilities in two medical school courses, the Respiratory System and Entrustment in Clinical Medicine.   

My clinical responsibilities have included being a neonatologist in our busy neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and helping lead the Kentucky Children’s Hospital extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program. 

Additionally, I have a joint appointment in the College of Engineering with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, where we are developing a new course (Biomedical Engineering Solutions in Modern Medicine) in which I will serve as the course instructor. 

I have always been passionate about teaching our students, interns, residents and fellows.  I have recently completed the Executive Coaching course at Brown University, and am currently working on becoming a certified Executive Coach.  To this day, that passionate feeling remains for the teaching, mentoring, and coaching of undergraduate and graduate students. 

I continue to be the faculty mentor for multiple student organizations:  Neonatology Interest Group, Kentucky’s Loya Foundation, ChefMed, Medical Student Survival Group, Caduceus Committee, Middle Eastern Medical Student Organization, and Engineering and Innovation in Medicine.  Beyond our learners, I also have a deep passion for serving my faculty colleagues at UK, and am focused on representing all the faculty at the University. 

My commitment to institutional service today is a longstanding one, dating back to my time as an undergraduate student in the College of Engineering at UK and continuing as a faculty leader in the College of Medicine, where I served on the Faculty Council for two terms. 

I understand deeply our University’s commitment – as a flagship and land-grant institution – to the missions of education, research, service, creativity and care. When we solve Kentucky’s challenges, we are providing solutions to global issues.

It’s against the backdrop of that mission that I believe so strongly in the essential nature of strong faculty leadership that works in a spirit of shared governance to advance UK and the state of Kentucky.

Faculty teach and prepare students, who will leave UK positioned to succeed and equipped to think critically and lead. We produce scholarship that advances our disciplines and fields, and in so doing, creates solutions for the most insoluble of issues and challenges. We serve in every corner of the state, across the country and around the world. And we provide advanced care, as the state’s center for specialty medicine, in every region of the state.

That essential role is why I have remained a staunch advocate for helping teach, mentor and coach our students and junior faculty.  And it’s why I have a firm commitment to shared governance and transparency within the University’s leadership. Those commitments – and those values – are essential. 

Most importantly, I am interested in hearing and listening to what our faculty view as issues, opportunities, and challenges that need to be addressed.

Such engagement – openness, transparency and a commitment to our shared values of shared governance – are how we will promote the University and improve the education, health and welfare of the state. 

If honored with the opportunity to represent our faculty as a trustee, I will unwaveringly be a voice for the interests of more than 3,000 teachers and scholars across our campus, whose talent and commitment to their disciplines and to the advance of knowledge continues to represent the best hope for our state and all those we serve.