The AAMC announced today that David J. Skorton, MD, AAMC president and CEO, will retire from his role on June 30, 2027. This timing marks the end of his contract that was extended by a unanimous vote of the AAMC Board of Directors in June 2023.
Dr. Skorton took the helm of the AAMC in July 2019, just months before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, he guided the association’s national response through frequent engagement with senior government officials, media appearances, and the development of a Road Map to Reset the Nation’s Approach to the Pandemic Together with AAMC leaders and experts, Dr. Skorton sounded the alarm on shortages of personal protective equipment in hospitals, testing shortages in academic laboratories, and the importance of respecting science and the scientific process in efforts to fight the pandemic. Early in his tenure as president and CEO, he oversaw a comprehensive strategic planning process that established a new mission and vision for the AAMC, and he introduced well-defined action plans to align the AAMC’s organizational resources to tackle the most intractable challenges in health.
“David’s leadership through some of the most defining moments in our nation’s history has been nothing short of extraordinary,” said Michael Waldrum, MD, MSc, MBA, chair of the AAMC Board of Directors. “He will be leaving the AAMC an even stronger association than when he arrived. Identifying a visionary leader to guide the association and the academic medicine community into the future will be our next challenge.”
Before joining the AAMC, Dr. Skorton served as the 13th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and as president of both Cornell University and the University of Iowa. He also served on the faculty for more than two decades and co-founded and co-directed the University of Iowa Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic. Dr. Skorton is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and has served as a distinguished professor at Georgetown University. Additionally, he is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The AAMC Board of Directors is leading the search for the association’s next president and CEO, in collaboration with Spencer Stuart, a global executive search and leadership consulting firm.