Dr. Wayne Riley, M.D., MPH, MBA, MACP
President, The State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences University
Wayne J. Riley, M.D., MPH, MBA, MACP, is the 17th President of The State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences University and Professor of Medicine and Health Policy Management. He is an academic primary care general internist with more than 25 years of executive management and leadership experience in academic medicine, healthcare management, government, and advocacy. Before joining Downstate, Dr. Riley held professorships at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. For six years, he served as the 10th president, chief executive officer, and professor of Medicine at Meharry Medical College. Dr. Riley earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, the Doctor of Medicine from the Morehouse School of Medicine, a Master of Public Health from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a Master of Business Administration from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.
Among his numerous honors, in June 2021 alongside Drs. Anthony Fauci and Eric Topol received the National Medical Humanism Medal from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, where he is Board Secretary. Dr. Riley was elected in 2020 as Board Chair of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) making him the first black board chair in NYAM’s 173-year history. He is a Commissioner of the non-partisan U.S. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and President Emeritus, Former Regent, and Master of the American College of Physicians (ACP).
Dr. Riley is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and, has served as Vice-Chair, and later as Chair of NAM’s Section on the Administration of Health Services, Education, and Research. Dr. Riley is past President of the Society of Medical Administrators, a member of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, the Sullivan Alliance to Diversify the Health Professions, Vice Chair and member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities. Active in the community, Dr. Riley serves on the Boards of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, YMCA of Greater New York, Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens, and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health.