Thomas Nasca, MD, MACP
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Educator, dean, and academic medicine leader Thomas Nasca, MD, MACP, has remained an unwavering, innovative force for improving health care in the United States and globally by advancing medical education throughout his illustrious career of nearly five decades. One colleague described Dr. Nasca as having had “an impact on medical education that is probably greater than that of any other living individual,” while another said, “His leadership and wisdom are priceless.” Known for leading with competence, humility, warmth, and genuine care for others, Dr. Nasca has left a long-lasting impact on academic medicine.
Dr. Nasca launched his faculty career at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1992 he moved to Jefferson Medical College (now the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University) to serve as vice chairman of medical education. In 2001, he became the dean, guiding the school through many changes including implementing a new undergraduate curriculum.
In 2007, he assumed leadership of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), serving as president and CEO for 17 years. In this role, he led the development of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education and the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Program and Milestone Project, which have enabled the ACGME to assist programs and their sponsoring institutions in strengthening the future physician workforce through educational research, quality of care delivery, and enhancement of formative evaluation and feedback. Dr. Nasca’s vision of consistent, national accreditation standards and desired outcomes resulted in the Single Accreditation System for all U.S. residencies, including those for DO programs. His influence formally transcended borders when he established ACGME International, a nonprofit organization that accredits graduate medical education programs and their sponsoring institutions outside the United States. It is now active in 14 countries and serves about 14% of the world’s population.
Since retiring as president of the ACGME in 2025, Dr. Nasca has served as founding director of the ACGME Center for Professionalism and the Future of Medicine. In addition to his visionary leadership of the ACGME, Dr. Nasca has contributed to an array of national organizations that support high-quality medical education, including the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Trilateral Committee on Evaluation of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Program, and the Council on Graduate Medical Education of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A Master of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Nasca has received several recognitions and awards over the years, including five honorary doctoral degrees and being named five times to Modern Healthcare’s annual list, “50 Most Powerful/Influential Physician Executives and Leaders.” He also received the 2016 Founders Award from the Dr. Tom Dooley Society of the University of Notre Dame, the 2018 Steven E. Weinberger Award for Physician Executives/Leaders from the American College of Physicians, the 2019 William D. Miller Award from the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the Federation of State Medical Licensing Boards’ 2020 Distinguished Service Award, and the 2025 AAMC Special Recognition Award.
Dr. Nasca earned a BS with high honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1971 and was an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of Jefferson Medical College in 1975. He was chief medical resident at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and completed a nephrology fellowship at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University School of Medicine (now the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University) in 1981.