Chicago, IL, February 24, 2021: The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) announced today the election of three new Directors to its Board of Directors at its January 2021 meeting.
Joanna Nelms, MD, MPH, will join the Board as an At-Large Member. Dr. Nelms is certified in both Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Medicine. She earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and her Master of Public Health degree at Wright State University. She currently serves as Chief of Flight Medicine and Physical Standards at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. Dr. Nelms believes her “passion toward fostering recruitment and retention within the specialties of preventive medicine (both in the military and civilian sector) imparts a commitment toward the development and propagation of both the ABPM and greater scope of the preventive medicine field.”
John D. Meyer, MD, MPH will be the ABPM’s newest representative for the Specialty of Occupational Medicine. Dr. Meyer is certified in Occupational Medicine and in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine. He earned his medical degree at Cornell University Medical College in New York and his Master of Public Health degree at Boston University School of Public Health. He is the Professor and Interim Chief of the Division of Occupational Medicine and the Director of the New York-New Jersey NIOSH Education & Research Center, in the Department of Environmental Medicine & Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In his statement of interest to the Board, Dr. Meyer said, “I see both certification and continuous learning throughout a career as preparing the capacity of trainees and practitioners to address current and future challenges that arise within medicine and within the larger society. I … welcome the opportunity … to work to assure the ongoing and future competency of practitioners in the specialty.”
Tim LaVan, MD, MPH will join the Board representing the Specialty of Aerospace Medicine. Dr. LaVan is certified in both Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine and his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. He completed a residency in family practice at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, FL and a residency in Aerospace Medicine at the Naval Aerospace Medicine Institute and now serves as a Command Flight Surgeon and Aeromedical Instructor at the Naval Safety Center School of Aviation Safety in Pensacola, FL. Dr. LaVan stated that “it is imperative that we attract the best and brightest physicians into our specialty, train them in the best way possible and ensure that board certification in our specialty is a meaningful, significant, and reliable indicator of world-class, professional physicians. I am eager to become a part of this mission.”
The new Directors will begin their three-year terms immediately following the Board of Directors’ meeting in August 2021. “I am very pleased with the quality of candidates we were able to choose from to fill open positions on the Board,” said Hernando “Joe” Ortega, Jr., MD, MPH, ABPM’s Chair. “Drs. Nelms, Meyer, and LaVan are among the best in their field and we are proud to welcome them to the Board. I am confident the future of ABPM is secure in the hands of these dedicated professionals.”
The ABPM is an ABMS Member Board. Founded in 1948, ABPM works with the ABMS in the development of standards for the ongoing assessment and certification of over 12,000 physicians certified by the ABPM in the specialties of Aerospace Medicine, Occupational Medicine, and Public Health and General Preventive Medicine; and in the subspecialties of Addiction Medicine, Clinical Informatics, Medical Toxicology, and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine.