For immediate release
June 10, 2006
CHICAGO — Ronald M. Davis, MD, a preventive medicine specialist from East Lansing, Mich., today was selected as president-elect of the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s largest and most influential physician organization.
Following a year-long term as president-elect, Dr. Davis will assume the AMA presidency in June 2007. His annual term as president will be followed by an additional year term as immediate past president ending in June 2009.
During his acceptance speech, Dr. Davis told physicians at the AMA’s Annual Meeting that Martin Luther King once said, “‘Service is the rent you pay for the space you occupy.’ Each of us has been privileged to occupy space in the halls of Medicine,” said Dr. Davis. “I look forward to paying my rent during the next three years.”
Dr. Davis served as the first resident physician member on the AMA Board of Trustees from 1984 to 1987. He returned to the Board of Trustees in 2001 and was re-elected in 2005. He has served as chair of the Board Finance and Audit Committees, AMA representative to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization’s Board of Commissioners, and AMA liaison to the Advisory Committee for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Davis has had an active role in shaping the policies of organized medicine. He has chaired the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs and the AMA Specialty and Service Society, a consortium of 100 national medical specialty societies represented in the AMA House of Delegates.
Board certified in preventive medicine, Dr. Davis has been a prominent voice on public health issues, including tobacco, obesity, dietary supplements, media violence, safety belts and immunizations.
Dr. Davis’ distinguished career as a public health official includes positions as medical director for the Michigan Department of Public Health and director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. Currently, he is the director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
Dr. Davis received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. He completed his medical degree at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and a master's degree in public policy at the same university.
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For more information, please contact:
Robert J. Mills
AMA Media Relations
(312) 464-5970
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