Nancy H. Nielsen
Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD, an internist from Buffalo, N.Y., became the 163rd president of the American Medical Association (AMA) in June 2008. Dr. Nielsen was speaker of the AMA House of Delegates (HOD) from 2003 to 2007 and vice speaker for the three preceding years. She was a delegate from New York and previously served two terms on the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs, where she helped formulate policy positions for AMA-HOD debates on the diagnosis and treatment of depression, alcoholism among women, Alzheimer's disease, priorities in clinical preventive services, colorectal cancer screening, asthma control, nicotine content of cigarettes and medication safety.
Among other AMA positions, Dr. Nielsen has served as a member of the National Patient Safety Foundation Board of Directors, the Commission for the Prevention of Youth Violence, and the Task Force on Quality and Patient Safety. She is the AMA representative on many quality initiatives, including the National Quality Forum, the AMA Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance, and the Quality Alliance Steering Committee. She serves on the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine.
Dr. Nielsen was speaker of the Medical Society of the State of New York House of Delegates, and a member of the board of directors of the Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company—one of the largest malpractice carriers in the country. She also was president of her county medical society and her hospital’s medical staff.
Dr. Nielsen holds a doctorate in microbiology and received her medical degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is clinical professor of medicine and senior associate dean for medical education at her alma mater, and has served as a trustee of the SUNY system. She was a member of the board of directors of Kaleida Health-a five-hospital system in western New York-and was chief medical officer of a large regional health plan in the Buffalo area.
Dr. Nielsen, who was born and raised in West Virginia, is the mother of five children.
