Trustees

Christine Cassel, MD, MACP, is President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation, and a leading expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics and quality of care. Dr. Cassel, board certified in both internal medicine and geriatric medicine, has achieved a number of firsts for women in medicine – she was the first female board chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine from 1995 - 1996, the first female President of the American College of Physicians from 1996 - 1997 and the first female dean of Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon in 2002.

An active scholar and lecturer, she is the author or co-author of 14 books and more than 150 journal articles on geriatric medicine, aging, bioethics and health policy. She chaired influential IOM reports on end-of-life care and public health. Her most recent book is Medicare Matters: What Geriatric Medicine Can Teach American Health Care.

Dr. Cassel is a representative to the National Quality Forum’s National Priorities Partnership, a member of the Commonwealth Fund’s Commission on a High Performance Health System and the Institute of Medicine Governing Council. She also sits on the board of directors of the Greenwall Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Premier Inc and other organizations with quality health care agendas. She was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, and has been central to other national leadership efforts to inspire quality of care.

Dr. Cassel has served as the President of the American Federation for Aging Research, dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at Oregon Health and Science University, and chair of the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where she was also professor of geriatrics and medicine. She spent a decade at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, as chief of General Internal Medicine and a founding Health Policy director of the Harris School of Public Policy.

Dr. Cassel received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Medicine of the U.K. and Canada and the European Federation of Internal Medicine, and was elected a master of the American College of Physicians in 1997.

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