For the Future Archives

Sometime, a hundred years from now, someone’s going to find a faded piece of paper and realize that they are looking at an event that made history. MedChi member, Willarda V. Edwards, MD, MBA was elected to the AMA’s Board of Trustees on the first ballot.

CHICAGO -- Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., M.B.A., an internal medicine physician from Baltimore, was elected today to the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation's largest and most influential physician organization.

"When I first came to our House of Delegates in 1994, I was amazed and awestruck, and immediately said, 'I want to be a part of this!' Since becoming a delegate to the AMA, my passion and enthusiasm have multiplied," Dr. Edwards said. "I am honored to be a Trustee for the nation's most prestigious medical organization. I deeply respect the ability of colleagues across the country to assist each other with challenges and opportunities to improve the care we give to our patients and the support we give to our fellow physicians."

Since 1984, Dr. Edwards has practiced internal medicine in Baltimore, serving as managing partner in her private practice. Over the same period, Dr. Edwards has been committed to organized medicine, holding prominent positions in local, state and national associations. She is a past president of the National Medical Association (NMA) and MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society. In 1995, Dr. Edwards became the first physician to serve concurrently as president of both the AMA and NMA local societies (Baltimore City Medical Society and the Monumental City Medical Society).

Dr. Edwards joined the AMA in 1994. In 1997, she was appointed to the inaugural governing council of the AMA Women Physicians Congress (now the AMA Women Physicians Section) and served as its chairperson from 2002 to 2004. She has served on and chaired AMA House of Delegates (HOD) reference committees, participated on task forces appointed by the AMA-HOD speaker, and served on and chaired AMA's HOD Committee on Compensation of the Officers through 2007. In 2011, she served on the search committee for the next AMA executive vice president. She currently serves as immediate past chair of our AMA Council on Constitution and Bylaws.

She also has served as the national director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Health Advocacy Division and as the president and COO at the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

Dr. Edwards earned a medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and earned an MBA from Loyola College in Maryland.

Please join all of us at MedChi and the Center for a Healthy Maryland
in congratulating Dr. Edwards!