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GREENVILLE – Dr. Michael Waldrum, ECU Health chief executive officer and dean of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, has been named chair-elect of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) 2024-25 Board of Directors.

The incoming board’s term begins Nov. 12, 2024, and will end November 2025, after which Dr. Waldrum will assume the role of board chair.

Dr. Waldrum was named chief executive officer of ECU Health in 2015 and named dean of Brody in 2021. He previously served as president and CEO of The University of Arizona Health Network and as CEO of the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham.

Dr. Waldrum is a specialist in critical care medicine and pulmonology and is trained in internal medicine.

He received his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Dr. Waldrum has served as chair of the AAMC’s Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (now called the Council of Academic Health System Executives) since 2022, where his unique rural health care perspective helped shape discussions around the complex issues facing rural communities across the nation and how academic medicine can help solve those challenges.

“I am extremely honored to serve as chair-elect of the prestigious AAMC Board of Directors, which has long been a powerful voice in academic medicine,” said Dr. Waldrum. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with highly respected academic health leaders from across the nation who are passionate about ensuring quality health care is available to all, including those living in rural communities.

“While there are certainly complex challenges facing health care nationally, the AAMC’s collective expertise helps chart new paths forward that improve the lives of many. It is humbling to be a part of this important work,” he added.

The AAMC is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 158 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies.

Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 193,000 full-time faculty members, 96,000 medical students, 153,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.

Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened the AAMC’s U.S. membership and expanded its reach to international academic health centers.