[1] Once he joined the faculty, Vickers became a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Fellow and was appointed director of UAB's Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery.
[8] In 2006, Vickers left UAB to become the Jay Phillips Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School (U of M).
[9] Vickers also became the principal investigator on the Enhancing Minority Participation in Clinical Trials (EMPaCT) to create a national consortia of five regional institutions to improve health disparities in America.
[6] Once rejoining the faculty, Vickers also led the research collaborative Center for Healthy African American Men through Partnerships, a consortium of academic centers and community organizations that works to develop, implement and evaluate interventions to improve African American men's health through research, outreach, and training.
[16] In September 2020, Vickers was elected to the board of directors of Alabama Power while also serving as president-elect of the American Surgical Association.
[20] In June 2022, Vickers was selected as the CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and began the role in September 2022.