John H. Armstrong, MD

John H. Armstrong, MD, is a national health leader, trauma surgeon and fourth-generation Army veteran who was elected vice speaker of the American Medical Association House of Delegates (HOD) in June 2023. A professor of surgery at the University of South Florida (USF) Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, Fla., and adjunct professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md., he serves as an executive committee member of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma and as a member of the U.S. Defense Health Board where he chairs its Trauma and Injury Subcommittee.

Throughout his career Dr. Armstrong has been engaged in leadership at all levels of the AMA: he is a former young physician member of the AMA Board of Trustees and former AMA secretary; a former member of the AMA Council on Long Range Planning and Development; a former chair of both the House Compensation Committee and the AMA Young Physicians Section; and a former delegate, alternate delegate, or chair of a variety of delegations and caucuses in the HOD.

From 2012 to 2016, Dr. Armstrong served as Florida’s surgeon general and secretary of health, and as co-executive director of the Governor’s Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding. In 2016 he received the Florida Medical Association Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to working in state government, Dr. Armstrong’s experiences include serving as the first chief medical officer of the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation in Tampa, Fla., as trauma medical director at the University of Florida, Gainesville (covering 1.1 million people in 12 counties), and as director of the award-winning U.S. Army Trauma Training Center in Miami.

Dr. Armstrong graduated from Princeton University, the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He performed his surgical residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, his trauma/surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, and his master educators in medical education fellowship at the University of Florida. A member of the ACS academy of master surgeon educators, Dr. Armstrong is a fellow of both the ACS and the American Academy of Chest Physicians, he has served as president of the Florida Chapter of the ACS and Florida governor to the ACS board of governors.

Dr. Armstrong, who completed his Army career as a colonel in 2005, is a global leader in mass casualty readiness training and has served as co-editor of the ACS Disaster Management and Emergency Preparedness Course, as editor-in-chief of Advanced Disaster Life Support, and as principal faculty of the Joint Counterterrorism Awareness Workshop Series. A recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Educator Award at the USF Morsani College of Medicine, he has served as a surgical critical care fellowship program director and on the ACGME Residency Review Committee.

Dr. Armstrong’s wife, Jodie, is an ophthalmologist in private practice. Their son, Christopher, is a rising senior at Princeton University.

2023–2024

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