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.
P. Travis Harker, MD, MPH
Council on Medical Education
Term: 2026-2030
Leading with optimism
Experience: Creating GME opportunities
Experience leading, advocating & innovating
Dr. Harker has been fighting for medical education since 1999 when he testified before the LCME as a medical student. For over 20 years he has served as the Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency medical director, CMO, and now the inaugural DIO and Tufts site dean at Portsmouth Hospital.
Engage those most impacted in co-creating solutions: Dr. Harker's leadership approach is deliberate: listen first, then amplify. When faculty and residents at Portsmouth called for improved teaching quality on the inpatient medicine service, he didn't simply hand down a curriculum. He convened the team, restructured the teaching service around their input, and built faculty development grounded in what attendings said they actually needed. The successful result was physician-led, and it stuck.
Defending the profession: More trained physicians means less pressure to substitute non-physician providers in communities that need doctors most. Dr. Harker authored policy preserving the primary care relationship, which the HOD endorsed in 2024, and is now the foundation of a bill before the NH Legislature. He turns principle into enforceable policy.
Spreading innovation: Dr. Harker's priority is an AMA GME Toolkit, a practical guide empowering community hospitals to launch residency programs. He built it in Portsmouth. He'll help every state replicate it.
Protecting academic integrity: In an era of growing political interference in medical education, Dr. Harker will fight for principles.
Science under siege: Evidence-based medicine faces political pressure in curricula and training. Dr. Harker will push back and stand with the AMA to defend the profession. Science is not partisan.
Clinical autonomy: Patient-centered care requires physician judgment. AMA must stand firm against government overreach into medical education.
Training the next generation: Dr. Harker involves residents in advocacy, through NH Medical Society lobby days, op-eds, and leadership didactics, preparing physicians who lead with both science and civic engagement.
Expanding the physician workforce: Residency expansion is a defense of physician-led care; we can't wait for Congress to authorize more GME slots. Dr. Harker has done it and has a transferable blueprint to share with the country; three programs built: family medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry residencies all from scratch, with simultaneous initial ACGME accreditation, 78 positions added. Expanded the New Hampshire resident physician workforce by 20%. Cultivating a culture of high quality, valuing, listening, and involving every person and every role resulted in zero ACGME citations across all programs.
Innovation & advocacy
Leading to restore joy & meaning for all physicians
International Medical Graduates IMGs are essential members of the physician family, often providing critical support for rural and underserved communities. As DIO, Dr. Harker has gone to bat for IMG residents facing visa hurdles, enlisting the support of NH’s congressional delegation to expedite visa processing so residents can stay on track with their training.
Authentic inclusion: AMA must find ways to ensure all physicians are welcome, have a seat at the table, and have a voice in solutions. Any serious workforce strategy must involve IMGs. The $100K H-1B fee must be appealed. This fee punishes community hospitals that need physicians most. Dr. Harker is fighting to reverse this and sees the need for a rational immigration policy. He believes the uncertainty in immigration policy creates direct gaps in patient care, especially in rural hospitals. He wants to reduce the financial and logistical burdens on IMGs, and rural and underserved communities, with stable, predictable visa pathways for IMGs who train in the US.
Embracing AI integration: This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. With advanced training in AI, Dr. Harker is implementing AI tools in his practice and resident education. The AMA must define the profession's AI vision, before others define it for us.
Personalized learning: AI identifies each resident's knowledge gaps and adapts curricula providing precision education at a scale no single faculty member can provide.
Streamlined accreditation: AI reduces ACGME documentation burden, freeing physicians to teach and practice at the bedside.
Protecting the relationship: AI must enhance, not replace, the physician-patient relationship. Clinical judgment stays at the center.
Leading to restore joy & meaning: Dr. Harker is shifting the conversation from burnout to meaning. He leads this work the same way he leads everything: he listens. He also integrates autonomy, belonging, and competence into Portsmouth's GME programs. These foundational guiding philosophies foster joy in medicine. He builds cultures where physicians thrive. When documentation was consuming time that could be better spent at the bedside during the day, and with family in the evenings, he convened a collaborative click-reduction initiative, built around physician input, that cut unnecessary EHR burden across the system. Ensuring physicians have a say in how they do their work, creating a caring community, and fostering curiosity, enrich the important work physicians do in service of our patients.
Tending the garden: Attentiveness to these ideas in UME, GME and CME as well as practice environments provides fertile soil in which joy and meaning can flourish.
Harker for CME
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.
