American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)  
Loading
How We Help You
About Board Certification
Maintenance of Certification (MOC)
About ABMS
News, Events & Resources
Products and Publications
Contact Us
Is Your Doctor Certified?
Is My Doctor Board Certified?
Hot Topics
Link to Specialty and Subspecialty Certificates
IPIP:Improving Performance in Practice
ABMS Expert Profiles image of a public speaker
Newsroom, Events & Resources
* Media Newsroom
  News Releases
  Facts & Background
  ABMS Expert Profiles
  As Seen in the Media
Newsletters
Events
Resources & Links
ABMS Media Contact: Lori Boukas
(312) 436-2626
lboukas@abms.org

Click on any of the photos below to see each expert's profile.
Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH - President and CEO of ABMS John B. McCabe, MD,
Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH
President and CEO
John B. McCabe, MD, FACEP
Chair
Valerie M. Parisi, MD, MPH, MBA
Thomas E. Norris, MD, FABFM
Vice Chair
Valerie M. Parisi, MD, MPH, MBA
Secretary-Treasurer
Sheldon D. Horowitz, MD - Special Advisor to the President Richard E. Hawkins, MD, FACP
Sheldon D. Horowitz, MD
Special Advisor to the President
Richard E. Hawkins, MD, FACP
Senior Vice President for Professional and Scientific Affairs

Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH
President and CEO

Dr. Kevin B. Weiss has served as President and CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) since 2008.  Dr. Weiss’ vision and leadership created the ABMS Enhanced Public Trust Initiative 2008-2011, a major new thrust to engage ABMS with the public more fully and strengthen its role as an agent of physician accountability.

For over 20 years, Dr. Weiss has devoted his medical career to health care quality and access.  He has conducted numerous U.S. and international epidemiological and health services research projects related to guideline implementation, chronic care management, outcomes measurement, quality improvement and health care equity.

With over 200 published articles, reviews, books, book chapters and monographs, Dr. Weiss is internationally recognized as a leader in health care quality, patient safety and health care equity.  He helped found the Chicago Patient Safety Forum and served as its first Chair.  He also developed the first U.S. graduate-level Master’s Program in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality at Northwestern University.  Dr. Weiss currently serves on the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s Clinical Performance Measures Committee and the Executive Committee of the American Medical Association’s Physicians Consortium for Performance Improvement.  He has also served on the National Quality Forum’s Consensus Standards Approval Committee and the AQA Alliance’s Performance Measures Committee.  Dr. Weiss is a Member of the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) Board of Regents.  He has chaired the ACP’s clinical assessment subcommittee, which develops the clinical guidelines for the College, and helped establish and then chair the College’s performance measurement committee.  Dr. Weiss is on the board of the Education Council for Foreign Medical Graduates and has served on Institute of Medicine committees, including those which developed the reports, “Crossing the Quality Chasm” and “Identifying Priority Areas for Quality Improvement.”

Dr. Weiss began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.  He was a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar.  Dr. Weiss served as a Special Assistant to the Program Director for the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, developing its epidemiology program and initiating its national studies of inner-city asthma.  From there, he served as Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Rush Medical College and Director of the Center for Health Services Research at the Rush Primary Care Institute, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.  Dr. Weiss joined the faculty of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as Professor of Medicine, where he founded the Institute for Healthcare Studies.  He also served as Director of the Center for Management of Complex Chronic Care at Hines and Chicago Veterans Administration Medical Centers.

Dr. Weiss received his medical degree from the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School and completed clinical training in internal medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.  He earned a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Illinois School of Public Health and a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration from Harvard University School of Public Health.  He did his post-doctoral training fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Dr. Weiss is Board Certified in internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine.  He also maintains a role as Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of General Medicine and in the Institute for Healthcare Studies in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

Return to Top of page


John B. McCabe, MD, FACEP
Chair

Dr. John B. McCabe joined the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in 1999 and currently serves as chair of the board of directors.  For 10 years, Dr. McCabe served as a trustee of the American Board of Emergency Medicine.  During his tenure, Dr. McCabe held all offices within the organization, including president of the board from 2004-2005. 

A renowned emergency medicine physician, Dr. McCabe is chief executive officer of University Hospital and senior vice president for hospital affairs at the Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.    In 1991, the university established an academic department of emergency medicine, and Dr. McCabe was its first chair.  He also is a professor in the department of emergency medicine and was instrumental in the development of the university’s residency program in emergency medicine.

Dr. McCabe’s research interests have been diverse and have covered numerous aspects of emergency medicine including the treatment of hemorrhagic shock, cardiac resuscitation, and the care of patients in the pre-hospital, emergency medicine environment. 

Dr. McCabe received his MD from the Upstate Medical College of Medicine in Syracuse and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio.  He is board certified in emergency medicine and in undersea and hyperbaric medicine by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

Return to Top of page


Thomas E. Norris, MD, FABFM
Vice Chair

Dr. Thomas Norris joined the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Assembly in 2000, the newly formed board of directors in 2005, and currently serves as the vice chair of the board of directors. From 2006 through 2008, he served as chair of the ABMS Maintenance of Certification® task force and was elected to the ABMS Executive Committee in 2008. In 2000, Dr. Norris was elected to the board of directors of the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and served as ABFM president from 2004 to 2005. He has served as president of both the Montana and Washington Academies of Family Physicians. 

A well-known authority in family medicine, Dr. Norris is vice dean for academic affairs; professor of family medicine; and adjunct professor of medical education, biomedical informatics, medicine, and health services, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. Dr. Norris continues to practice and teach family medicine, and his research efforts have centered on rural practice, medical education, the education of rural family physicians, procedures in family medicine, and the use of telemedicine and medical informatics in primary care settings.

Dr. Norris received his MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and completed his residency training in family practice at St. Joseph's Hospital, Kansas University School of Medicine, Wichita. He is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine. 

Return to Top of page


Valerie M. Parisi, MD, MPH, MBA
Secretary-Treasurer

Dr. Valerie M. Parisi serves as secretary-treasurer on the executive committee of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).  In this role, she is chair of the Finance and Audit Committee and acts as a member of the Liaison Committee for Specialty Boards (LCSB).
 
Prior to her assuming this leadership position, Dr. Parisi served as a member of the ABMS Finance Committee and was a representative from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) to the ABMS Assembly. For six years, Dr. Parisi sat on the Board of Directors for the Society for Perinatal Obstetricians (now the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine) prior to her being elected president of the organization.  Dr. Parisi currently is vice dean for hospital relations and clinical affairs as well as a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

Dr. Parisi received her MD from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; her MPH from the University of California School of Public Health in Berkeley, Calif.; and her MBA from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler School of Business in Chapel Hill, NC.  Dr. Parisi is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology with a subspecialty in maternal and fetal medicine.

Return to Top of page


Sheldon D. Horowitz, MD
Special Advisor to the President

Dr. Sheldon D. Horowitz is a leading contributor to several key American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) strategic initiatives including ABMS Member Board programs for physician certification and ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (MOC), and programs to improve patient safety and practice performance.  He also has served as the primary advisor on ABMS Research and Education Foundation programs and activities.

He joined ABMS in 1999 as senior vice president and executive director of the ABMS Research and Education Foundation.  In that role, Dr. Horowitz championed the efforts to secure four grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund a pilot program called Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP). The program provides support systems and tools to help doctors apply evidence-based practice guidelines to improve patient health. 

Prior to joining ABMS, Dr. Horowitz spent 25 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he held various positions including professor of pediatrics (immunology) and associate dean for medical education at the university’s medical school.

Dr. Horowitz received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed his pediatric training at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.  In addition, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Horowitz is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Board of Allergy and Immunology.

Return to Top of page


Richard E. Hawkins, MD, FACP
Senior Vice President for Professional and Scientific Affairs


Dr. Richard E. Hawkins joined the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in February 2009 as senior vice president for professional and scientific affairs. He is responsible for providing leadership to ABMS and its various committees to help promote the science of ABMS Maintenance of Certification® and certification in context of advancing physician assessment programs.  Dr. Hawkins has more than 20 years of experience working on various initiatives to assess and evaluate physician quality and competency. Prior to assuming his current position with ABMS, Dr. Hawkins was the vice president for assessment programs at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) in Philadelphia.  Dr. Hawkins received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed his residency and internship at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Va. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine with a subspecialty in infectious disease.