A kid from Gary, Indiana is about to lead the largest physician organization in the country
Dr. Willie Underwood III, a board-certified urological surgeon and proud Morehouse College alum, was elected president-elect of the American Medical Association in June 2025. He will be inaugurated as AMA president this upcoming June, making him only the second Black man to hold the position in the organization’s nearly 180-year history. The first was Dr. Lonnie Bristow in 1995, more than 30 years ago.
Dr. Underwood’s journey is rooted in resilience. Growing up in Gary, his mother moved the family to a predominantly white neighborhood after learning that the restrictive covenants keeping Black families out were illegal. He went from an all-Black Catholic school that poured into him to a school where teachers had little interest in educating Black students. But his family never let up on the importance of education.
That foundation carried him to Morehouse College, where he earned his degree in biology, then to SUNY Upstate Medical University for his medical degree, the University of Connecticut for surgical training, and the University of Michigan for a Master of Public Health. He became one of the first five urologists ever admitted into the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program.
With more than 25 years of experience in urologic surgery, over 120 peer-reviewed publications, patents for co-developing a prostate cancer biomarker, and past roles as an associate professor of oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Center and executive director of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, Dr. Underwood has spent his career not just practicing medicine but fighting to make it more equitable.
“Most health systems work extremely well for wealthy people,” Dr. Underwood has said. “They’re horrible for the poor. That’s not just a Buffalo problem. That’s the health system within itself.”
When he takes the helm of the AMA, he’ll be representing more than 190 state and specialty medical societies and the patients they serve. From Gary, Indiana to the top of American medicine!
