John Boltri, M.D., has been appointed Chair of the Wayne State University School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences.
Dr. Boltri, who will join the department Oct. 1, comes to the School of Medicine from the Mercer University School of Medicine in Georgia, where he serves as professor and Vice Chair of Faculty Development for the Department of Family Medicine. He also is the associate director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at the Medical Center of Central Georgia.
"I have had in-depth conversations with Dr. Boltri regarding his vision for the department for the next five years. That vision, coupled with his solid academic credentials and ability to strengthen the department and build a preeminent program, make him the ideal person to lead the department," said Valerie M. Parisis, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., dean of the School of Medicine.
He will take over the position from Kendra Schwartz, M.D., M.S.P.H., who had been serving as interim Chair since former Chair Maryjean Schenk, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., was appointed vice dean of Medical Education in April 2010.
"I'm very proud and excited to be joining the school and the department because they have an outstanding reputation and they are both very strong already," said Dr. Boltri, who grew up in New York. "I look forward to becoming part of that strong team."
He said his immediate goals for the department include renewed focus on medical education of students and residents, and developing collaborative efforts with other departments within the School of Medicine as well as the other colleges of Wayne State University.
Dr. Boltri graduated with a bachelor's degree with honors from State University of New York in 1983. He received his medical degree from Ohio State University in 1987, and completed a Family Medicine residency at Akron City Hospital in 1990. He also completed an Academic Development and Leadership Fellowship at the McLennan County Research and Education Foundation Faculty Development Center of Texas.
He has extensive experience in clinical practice, including a private practice that taught medical students. In addition, he maintained an outpatient academic clinical practice for the past 13 years. He is credited with re-engineered the family medicine inpatient service at the Medical Center of Central Georgia, where he served as director of the Transitional Residency Program.
An accomplished researcher, Dr. Boltri has secured grants totaling $3.4 million from the National Institutes of Health. Some of his work has focused on building collaborative relationships among multi-disciplinary groups to improve community health. He co-implemented the first Southeastern Family Medicine and Primary Care Research Conference, recruited a wide range of investigators from across the United States to join his research team and secured supplemental grants to increase that team's diversity. He has received grants from numerous other organizations, including the Medcen Community Health Foundation, Alpha Omega Alpha, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, the Hatcher Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2009 he received the GO! Diabetes Award for mentoring a resident participant in a two-state enhancement project to improve management of patients with diabetes in family medicine residency programs sponsored by the Georgia Academy and Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians, and received a certificate of appreciation for Outstanding Service as Practicum Supervisor for the Masters of Public Health Program at Mercer University School of Medicine. He was named Fellow for the Coastal Research Group in 2007 and Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2011.
Dr. Boltri was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society in 2004, was named Attending of the Year at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in 2001 and received a certificate of recognition from the American Academy of Family Physicians for participation as an Active Volunteer Teacher of Family Medicine in 1994.
In his free time, Dr. Boltri enjoys tennis, flying radio-controlled airplanes and fishing. He has two sons and a daughter.