Polly Parsons, M.D., E.L. Amidon Chair and Professor of Medicine

University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and UVM Health Network Medical Group President and CEO Jason Sanders, M.D., M.B.A., have announced that Polly Parsons, M.D., E.L. Amidon Chair and Professor of Medicine, has been named the next president and CEO of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM). Parsons will begin her new role part-time in July, while still retaining her duties as chair, and will fully transition to her new position with AAIM on October 1, 2022.

AAIM has more than 11,000 faculty and administrator members in departments of internal medicine in medical schools and teaching hospitals.

A long time supporter of AAIM, Parsons is a former Association of Professors of Medicine Councilor, Association of Specialty Professors Councilor, Chair of the AAIM Accreditation Committee, and member of numerous task forces and committees to support education, fellowship requirements, milestones, and program planning.

Parsons joined the UVM faculty in 2000 as a professor of medicine and director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In 2005, she became interim chair of medicine, and in 2006 was named to the Amidon Chair. In addition to her accomplishments here at UVM, she has served many national organizations in her field, and is a past president of the American Thoracic Society and a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the latter of which awarded her a Mastership in 2021.

Parsons is the author of more than 170 published articles, chapters, and reviews, and has edited 10 textbooks. Her National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported research focused on biomarkers in acute lung injury. She has served as a member of the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Scientific Advisory Council, and is the Scientific Council Director of the Parker B. Francis Fellowship Program of the Francis Family Foundation. In 2021 the American Thoracic Society awarded her the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal, given by the society to those who have made "lifelong contributions to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung disease through leadership in research, education, or clinical care."

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College, Parsons earned her M.D. at University of Arizona College of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in pulmonary medicine at University of Colorado School of Medicine.