Candidate for election at 2026 Annual Meeting: Joanna Turner Bisgrove, MD, MPH

Elections will be held at the Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates on June 9, 2026.

Officers and five councils are elected by the American Medical Association House of Delegates (HOD) at the Annual Meeting. Elections for contested contests are held during a special election session under the supervision of the Committee on Rules and Credentials and the chief teller, who are appointed by the speakers. Voting is conducted by secret ballot.

Joanna Turner Bisgrove, MD, MPH

Candidate for the Council on Science and Public Health

Term: 2026-2030

A proven leader for science and public health

Dr. Joanna Turner Bisgrove would be honored to have your vote for re-election to the Council on Science and Public Health. Her deep expertise in public health and policy issues can help the AMA demonstrate that scientific evidence continues to be the foundation of better health care. It is more important than ever for stakeholders to receive this message now, and Dr. Bisgrove has the experience to ensure that it is heard loudly and clearly. 

Dr. Bisgrove has been deeply involved with community health since early in her career. She served for eight years as the school district medical advisor in the small Wisconsin town where she worked as a young physician. She also co-chaired the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians’ Legislative Committee and was a member of the Board of Directors for SSM Health Wisconsin. At the local, system, and state level, she advocated for health policies to improve the lives of Wisconsinites. She spearheaded school district policy enhancements that decreased tobacco use and helped stop bullying. She also taught sexual health to high schoolers, adolescent wellness to community families, and helped guide the district through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a member of SSM Health Wisconsin's Board of Directors, she championed effective population health strategies and collaborated with then-U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams to bring him to Madison as a featured speaker at a public health forum co-hosted by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and SSM Health.

In 2021, Dr. Bisgrove returned to her hometown of Chicago and her alma mater, Rush University Medical Center. Since then, she has continued her grassroots advocacy through Chicago’s West Side United, a multi-stakeholder initiative co-founded by Rush and supported by our AMA. She continues to educate her patients and the broader public through media interviews and editorials on a wide range of public health topics, including becoming a leading online resource for information on norovirus prevention and treatment. Dr. Bisgrove earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health with a focus on maternal and child health in July of 2025. As part of her MPH work, she partnered with Rush’s VeggieRx pantry to develop a healthy eating booklet for children and families experiencing food insecurity, featuring kid-friendly recipes built around shelf-stable items and fresh produce available through the pantry.

Advancing science-based health policy in the media

Leading forum with Dr. Adams

Winning praise from government officials

A record of leadership in the AMA

Just a few years after Dr. Bisgrove arrived in the AMA House of Delegates, the #MeToo movement reshaped national conversations about equity and accountability. Inspired by the investigative work of her high school classmate Megan Twohey—one of the two New York Times reporters who set off #MeToo by exposing Harvey Weinstein’s abuses —Dr. Bisgrove decided to run for the AMA Women Physicians Section Governing Council. She won back to back competitive elections for an at-large seat and served for four years on the governing council, including one year as vice chair. During her tenure, Dr. Bisgrove helped expand the scope of the WPS’s work, focusing on initiatives that drew in male allies as section members, advanced policies to support the health of women and children and promoted initiatives that help women physicians and students thrive. After completing her time on the WPS Governing Council, she ran for the Council on Science and Public Health, where she has served since. She is now also a member of the CSAPH Executive Committee. 

A lifelong advocate for people with disabilities, Dr. Bisgrove has written and spoken publicly about her experience as a physician, student and patient with hearing loss as part of her efforts to improve the medical landscape for other physicians, students and patients with disabilities. Within the House of Delegates, she has championed policies to improve care for patients with disabilities and modernize AMA ethics to better serve physicians with disabilities who are still able to take excellent care of their patients so long as they have appropriate accommodations. Her leadership in disability advocacy led her to be selected as chair for the AMA Disability Advisory Group, which she has done for the past two years. Under Dr. Bisgrove’s leadership, the advisory group has worked to improve meeting accommodations for AMA members with disabilities, broaden the coalition of members with disabilities and their allies within the AMA House of Delegates, and help develop education modules to teach AMA members about disability inclusion, anti-ableism, interacting with colleagues, students and residents with disabilities, and care of patients with disabilities.

Elect Dr. Bisgrove to a second term on CSAPH

Dr. Bisgrove would be honored to have your vote for a second term on the Council for Science and Public Health so she can continue leading and contributing to work that improves the nation’s health. Dr. Bisgrove is committed to representing all AMA members during a second term, as she demonstrated during her first term by ensuring that the council’s work reflects contributions and concerns from colleagues across the AMA House of Delegates.

Additional resources

• Visit the AMA elections page for information on other candidates running for office.
• Find up to date information for the June Annual Meeting of the HOD.