Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD
Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD, an internist from Buffalo, N.Y., most recently served as the 163rd president of the American Medical Association (AMA) from June 2008 to June 2009. Dr. Nielsen was speaker of the AMA House of Delegates (HOD) from 2003 until 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 scientific and public health issues. She is also a strong proponent of the need for affordable health insurance for all Americans.
Among other AMA positions she has held, 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-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AQA), 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, where she is a clinical professor of medicine and senior associate dean for medical education. She has served as a trustee of the SUNY system and as a member of the board of directors of Kaleida Health, a five-hospital system in western New York. She also 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.
2009–2010
