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Click on any of the photos below to see each expert's profile.
Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH - President and CEO of ABMS Joel A. DeLisa, MD, MS
Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH
President and CEO
Joel A. DeLisa, MD, MS
Chair
John B. McCabe, MD, Valerie M. Parisi, MD, MPH, MBA
John B. McCabe, MD, FACEP
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 is President and CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Dr. Weiss also is a professor of clinical medicine and holds appointments in the Division of General Medicine and in the Institute for Healthcare Studies in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Most recently, Dr. Weiss was the director of the Institute for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University; and was also the director of the Center for Management of Complex Chronic Care at Hines and Chicago Veterans Administration Medical Centers.

He began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine while also serving as a special assistant to Program Director for the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH.  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 received his MD from the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School, clinical training in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, an MPH from the University of Illinois School of Public Health and a Master’s in Health Services Administration from Harvard University School of Public Health.  He did his post-doctoral training fellowship at the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was also a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Weiss has devoted his medical career to quality and access issues in primary care, conducting epidemiological and health services research projects related to guideline implementation, chronic care management, outcomes measurement and quality improvement, with a specific emphasis on asthma. Recognizing the importance of patient safety and quality of care in his community, Dr. Weiss helped found the Chicago Patient Safety Forum and served as its first chairperson.  He also developed the Masters in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality at Northwestern University.  He currently serves on the Clinical Performance Measures Committee of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and on the Executive Committee of the American Medical Association's (AMA) Physicians Consortium for Performance Improvement. He also serves on National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Consensus Standards Approval Committee, and chairs the Performance Measures Committee of the AQA Alliance. Dr. Weiss also is a Board of Regents member of the American College of Physicians (ACP).  He has served on Institute of Medicine Committees which developed the reports, “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” and “Identifying Priority Areas for Quality Improvement.”

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Joel A. DeLisa, MD, MS

Dr. Joel A. DeLisa joined the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in 2001 as treasurer and member of the Executive Committee.  He currently serves as the chair at ABMS where he brings broad-ranging experience as a clinician, medical educator and administrator.

Widely recognized as a leader in physical medicine and rehabilitation, Dr. DeLisa serves as professor and chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark and president of the Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Center in West Orange.  In 2007, he was elected to a four-year term as a Member-at-Large of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME).  He is chair-elect of the Council of Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Dr. DeLisa received his MD from the University of Washington School of Medicine and his MS from the University of Washington. He is board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and in its subspecialty of Spinal Cord Injury Medicine.     

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John B. McCabe, MD, FACEP
Vice Chair

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

A renowned emergency medicine researcher, Dr. McCabe is a professor and chair of the department of emergency medicine at the State University of New York Update Medical University in Syracuse.  In 1991, the university established an academic department of emergency medicine, and Dr. McCabe was its first chair.  He also was instrumental in the development of the university’s residency program in emergency medicine.

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

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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.

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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 serves 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.

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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.