Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., CAE

March 2, 1946 – March 26, 2017

Dr. Fisher was the President and Chief Executive Officer of AMGA (formerly the American Medical Group Association) from October 1980 until his death in March 2017. He also served as Chairman of the Board of AMGA's subsidiary AMGA Analytics, the Secretary of AMGA Foundation, and President and Chief Executive Officer of AMGA Corporation.

Dr. Fisher joined the American Group Practice Association (AGPA), AMGA’s predecessor, in 1980. Through a mix of program development, collaboration with members and the board, and business acumen, he has guided AMGA through more than 35 years of growth. Under his tenure, AMGA expanded from 8,000 physicians practicing in its member organizations in 1980 to 175,000 today. Dr. Fisher was a strong advocate for multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care and for the patients served by these systems by continuously striving to improve patient care through innovation, information sharing, benchmarking, the creation of sound public policy, and leadership development.

Prior to becoming the CEO of AMGA, Dr. Fisher served as the first Executive Director of the American Academy of Physician Assistants in Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Fisher was very active in other organizations, in particular those dealing with health care. He served as immediate past chair and a member of the Board of Directors of the American International Health Alliance; a member of the American Association of Medical Society Executives; a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives; and a member of the American Society of Association Executives. He was also Chair of the Board of Directors of Alliance Bank.

Dr. Fisher earned a B.S. in biology/chemistry from Millsaps College in 1968, his M.S. in anatomy from the University of Mississippi, School of Medicine in 1971 and a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Mississippi in 1973. He also was a Certified Association Executive as designated by the American Society of Association Executives. His passion was health care, and he served on numerous related boards and councils as well as received many honors, including the Russell V. Lee Lectureship and the Presidential Award from the American Academy of Physician Assistants. Other honors include being elected to Who's Who in Health Care, being named to Distinguished Leaders in Health Care and named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.