The Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) has selected Todd M. Baker as its new chief executive officer (CEO). The move will be the first leadership change at the state’s largest physician-led organization in nearly a quarter-century.
“I have worked for physicians all my professional life, the last 20 years in Ohio,” Mr. Baker said. “I am honored to be able to continue to do so as CEO of the OSMA.”
Mr. Baker, who since 2014 has served as co-CEO of the OSMA, responsible for all day-to-day operations of the organization, will begin his new post in January. In the three years prior to becoming co-CEO he served as the OSMA’s senior director of professional relations where he provided strategic leadership and management for the OSMA’s independent physician, advocacy, and external relations divisions. Mr. Baker has also served as the executive director of the Ohio Ophthalmological Society (OOS) since 1995.
“I have a strong working relationship with the leading health care organizations and policymakers in Ohio, and I look forward to continuing our partnership to make health care in Ohio the best it can be for patients and providers,” he said.
Mr. Baker, 48, will replace D. Brent Mulgrew who announced late last year that he was retiring after 42 years at the OSMA, the past 24 years as executive director. The OSMA Council, the association’s governing board of practicing physicians, appointed a search committee that, after a five-month search, recommended Mr. Baker to be CEO. The Council, at its quarterly meeting in Cleveland on August 20, unanimously voted to accept the committee’s recommendation to promote Mr. Baker to the top post.
“We received more than 200 applications and eventually focused on a diverse group of 16 candidates before narrowing our list to a final four,” said search committee chair Alice Dachowski, MD, FACS, a general surgeon at Holzer Health System. “Mr. Baker was our clear and unanimous choice to lead the OSMA into the future. His experience, understanding of the association and vision for where we should be headed was evident.”
The OSMA advocates on behalf of physicians and the practice of medicine and Mr. Baker will take over the organization at a demanding period for health care with physicians navigating new payment reform, practice transformation, and delivery of medical services models and ideas. The OSMA has also over the past decade been challenged by member recruitment and retention and efforts to engage physicians.
“It is a challenging time for physicians as they are being asked to transform the way they provide care which in turn impacts how they are paid,” Mr. Baker said. “The OSMA must similarly transform the way it advocates and provides support to physicians if we are to stay relevant in the future. And we will.”
Mr. Baker, a Buffalo, NY, native, graduated from Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and from the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs with a Master’s of Public Affairs. He has also volunteered with the Capital Hockey Conference and AAA Blue Jackets. Mr. Baker lives in Columbus, OH, with his wife and three children.