Linda B. Ford, MD

Linda B. Ford, MD

Linda B. Ford, MD, a physician of allergy and immunology and president and founder of Asthma & Allergy Center in Papillion, Nebraska, was elected to the AMA Foundation Board of Directors in June 2002.

For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Ford has been a leader in the fight against asthma and other forms of lung disease. She served on the Board of Directors and Council of the American Lung Association (ALA) from 1987 to 1999, and elected as its President for 1998/99. Dr. Ford has also been a member and President of the Board of Directors of the ALA of Nebraska. She co-chaired the ALA’s major gifts campaign, ASTHMATTACK!, securing more than $25 million in support of three national basic science centers and nineteen regional clinical research centers.

Dr. Ford is dedicated to lung disease education. From 1992 to 1994, Dr. Ford was Chairman of the Asthma Camp Committee and chaired the Quality of Asthma Committee for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. From 1998 to 2000, she chaired the Academy’s Aerobiology Committee, which oversees 83 certified pollen counting stations across the country. From 1992 to 1995, Dr. Ford served on the foundation for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. In 1994-96, Dr. Ford chaired the Consortium of Asthma Camps. She was a catalyst for the formation of the National Asthma Educators Certification Board and is its first Chairman.

Dr. Ford has written dozens of articles on the subjects of asthma and allergic disease, both for professional and general public audiences. She wrote “Disease Management Protocols for Asthma” for managed care organizations and pharmaceutical companies, and helped author the ALA’s “Family Guide to Asthma and Allergies.” Dr. Ford served on the Editorial Boards of the American Family Physician, a publication of the American Academy of Family Practice and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the American Thoracic Society.

Dr. Ford represents Nebraska physicians as a the chair of the Nebraska Delegation to the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates, the Nebraska Medical Association’s House of Delegates, and the Metropolitan Omaha Medical Society. She also chaired the Nebraska Medical Association’s Public Health Committee and serves as Medical Director of the Sarpy/Cass Department of Health and Wellness, a two county health department. She serves her profession and her community by sitting on the Boards of Directors of the Nebraska Humane society and Nebraska Historical Society.

Dr. Ford earned her medical degree at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her internship was at the Jewish Hospital Washington University, residency in internal medicine at St. Louis University, and Fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Creighton University. She is married to R. Joe Dennis and has one daughter and 3 grandchildren.