Dr. Darrell G. Kirch is a national advisor with Manatt Health, where he advises medical schools and health systems on strategy and organization development.

Darrell is president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which represents the nation’s medical schools, their teaching hospitals and health systems, and related academic societies. He served as AAMC president and CEO from 2006 to 2019. Darrell also is an adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

A distinguished physician, educator and medical scientist, Darrell speaks and publishes widely on the need for transformation in the nation’s health care system and how academic medicine can lead change across medical education, biomedical research and patient care. His career spans all aspects of academic medicine and includes leadership positions at two medical schools and academic health systems, as well as at the National Institutes of Health.

Before becoming AAMC president, Darrell was selected as chair-elect of the association, and co-chaired the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accreditation body for medical schools. He also has served as chair of the AAMC Council of Deans Administrative Board and chair of the American Medical Association Section on Medical Schools.

Darrell assumed the position of AAMC president in July 2006 following six years as senior vice president for health affairs, dean of the college of medicine and CEO of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center at The Pennsylvania State University, where he and his leadership team are credited with revitalizing the institution and guiding it through a period of educational innovation and major growth in clinical activity and research funding. Before joining Penn State, Darrell held a number of leadership positions at the Medical College of Georgia from 1994 to 2000, including serving as dean of the medical school, senior vice president for clinical activities and dean of the school of graduate studies.

A psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist by training, Darrell began his career at the National Institute of Mental Health, becoming chief of the Schizophrenia Research Branch, serving as the acting scientific director in 1993, and receiving the Outstanding Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service. Over his career, Darrell has been awarded 11 honorary doctoral degrees in recognition of his contributions to the profession.