Ronald M. Davis

Ronald Mark Davis (June 18, 1956 – November 6, 2008) was an American physician who specialized in preventive medicine and was a public health and tobacco control advocate. Davis served a one-year term as president of the American Medical Association from 2006 to June 2007.

Biography Davis was born in Chicago on June 18, 1956, to George and Alice Komessar Davis.

He served from 1987 to 1991 as the director of the Centers for Disease Control's Office on Smoking and Health and was chief medical officer of the Michigan Department of Public Health from 1991 to 1995. He later served as the director of health promotion and disease prevention for the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. Davis was a long-standing member of the American Association of Public Health Physicians, which collaborates with the National Medical Association on historic inequities and health disparities. Davis provided memorable keynote addresses, at the 2008 AMA meeting, and to the AAPHP on June 14, 2008.

Davis died at age 52 on November 6, 2008, in his home near East Lansing, Michigan. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. Davis had married the former Nadine Messina in 1979 and was survived by her and their three sons.