Dr. Aletha Maybank became the American Medical Association’s first chief health equity officer in 2019, catalyzing unprecedented institutional transformation. During her five-and-a-half-year tenure, she compelled the 177-year-old organization to acknowledge its exclusion of Black physicians for over a century and confront troubling practices, including honoring J. Marion Sims, who experimented on enslaved Black women without anesthesia.
Maybank established the AMA’s Center for Health Equity, embedding equity principles throughout the organization’s policies and practices. When government COVID-19 data initially omitted impacts on Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities, she advocated successfully for comprehensive data collection, demonstrating her principle that measurement precedes meaningful change.
Her work extended beyond policy. Maybank created the popular “Prioritizing Equity” video series, launched the Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship to train future equity champions, and developed comprehensive language guides to reshape health care narratives. She co-founded partnerships including the Rise to Health Coalition and initiatives addressing maternal mortality disparities affecting Black and Native American women.
A pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist with degrees from Johns Hopkins, Temple, and Columbia, Maybank previously founded New York City’s Center for Health Equity. There, she transformed public health offices into Neighborhood Health Action Centers and led department-wide equity training initiatives. She also co-founded the Artemis Medical Society, supporting over 3,500 Black female physicians.
Maybank’s approach centered on addressing root causes—housing, education, employment, and wealth disparities—rather than blaming individuals for health outcomes. She emphasized that sustainable change requires emotional engagement alongside data, and institutional transformation must precede external equity efforts.
In December 2024, Maybank announced her departure from the AMA to launch new work combining art and narrative storytelling with medicine, continuing her mission to advance health justice.
Learn More:
AMA’s announcement of her achievements and departure:
https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/ama-s-first-chief-health-equity-officer-depart-year-s-end
Commonwealth Fund podcast on her AMA work and vision:
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/podcast/2025/apr/charting-path-through-troubled-legacy
AMA video on advancing health equity during COVID-19:
https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/aletha-maybank-md-mph-explores-context-public-health-improve-equity
