Elissa J. Palmer, MD

Elissa J. Palmer, MD received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was Chief Resident at her residency at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Dr. Palmer practiced in Stowe, Vermont and Lewiston, Maine before becoming the director of Altoona Family Physicians Residency - a community-based, eighteen-resident program in Pennsylvania. During her first year as director, she completed the National Institute for Program Director Development fellowship. Always practicing the full scope of family medicine, including obstetrics, she participated on various continuous process improvement leadership teams at the Altoona Regional Health System and directed several departments, including Women's Health and Wellness and the Pregnancy Care Center from 1995 to 2006. Dr. Palmer is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine where she directs the rural track residency in addition to the OB fellowship.

Dr. Palmer served as the vice chair and chair of the Pennsylvania Program Directors and Medical School Chairs Assembly. She has been a member of the Board of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and active on the Public Policy Committee and Resident and Student Affairs Commission. She is presently on the Faculty Council at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. Active in policy and legislation, she served on that committee for the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM). She is President-Elect of the Board of Directors of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD) in which capacity she chairs the by-laws committee, participates on the finance committee and works on the education committee. Dr. Palmer represented AFMRD on the Advisory Board of the Genetics in Primary Care Faculty Development Initiative, including work on cultural competency. She teaches in the Frontline: Diabetes preceptorship program. She has lectured on genetics, leadership and primary care in the US and taught Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) courses in England. She has received several clinical awards and was the recipient of the Mead-Johnson Award and Parker-Davis Award for Family Medicine teaching.

Dr. Palmer's areas of interest include teaching, genetics, obstetrics, practice management, and gender in leadership roles, in addition to fundraising for school and community projects involving music, language, and health in elementary education.