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 Wayne State from the Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Ga., where he is professor and vice chair of faculty development for the Department of Family Medicine. He also is 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," said Valerie M. Parisi, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., dean of the School of Medicine. "That vision, coupled with his solid academic credentials and ability to strengthen the department and build a pre-eminent program, makes him the ideal person to lead the department."

He takes over the position from Kendra Schwartz, M.D., who had been interim chair since former chair Maryjean Schenk, M.D. was appointed vice dean of medical education in April 2010.

Dr. Boltri received 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 clinical experience, including a private practice that taught medical students. In addition, he has maintained an outpatient academic clinical practice for the past 13 years. He is credited with re-engineering the family medicine inpatient service at the Medical Center of Central Georgia, where he was 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 multidisciplinary 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 project to improve management of patients with diabetes in family medicine residency programs sponsored by the Georgia Academy and Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians. He also received a certificate of appreciation for outstanding service as practicum supervisor for the Master of Public Health program at Mercer University School of Medicine. He was named a Fellow of the Coastal Research Group in 2007 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2011.

Dr. Boltri was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society in 2004, 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.

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.