Emilie Marcus, PhD, is appointed the Leonard D. Schaeffer Executive Officer of the National Academy of Medicine, effective August 24, 2026. She serves as the Academy’s chief operating executive alongside President Monica M. Bertagnolli. Marcus joins from UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine after two decades at Cell Press and succeeds J. Michael McGinnis, who has held the role since 2015.
The National Academy of Medicine selects seven health professionals for its 2026 class of NAM fellows. The fellows represent programs in nursing, anesthesiology research, family medicine, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, and state health policy. Over two years, they work part time with National Academies study committees and roundtables while retaining their academic posts.
Monica M. Bertagnolli, former Director of the National Institutes of Health, begins a six-year term as president of the National Academy of Medicine on July 1, 2026. She is the first woman to hold the office and succeeds Victor J. Dzau, who led the Academy from 2014 to 2026.
The National Academy of Medicine launched its Shared Commitments initiative, a nationwide effort to align patients, clinicians, researchers, payers, and policymakers around progress toward a learning health system. The framework calls for health care that is engaged, safe, effective, efficient, fair, accessible, accountable, transparent, secure, and adaptive, and marks the 20th anniversary of the NAM’s Learning Health System program.
