David W. Parke II, MD
Dr. Parke is Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The Academy is the world’s largest ophthalmology organization, with over 31,000 members and offices in San Francisco and Washington, DC. Prior to assuming this role, Dr. Parke served for 17 years as president and chief executive officer of the Dean McGee Eye Institute and Edward L. Gaylord Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology in the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. For 27 years he was a clinically active vitreoretinal surgeon, clinical investigator, and teacher. Dr. Parke served as president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2008. He is a fellow of the Academy and received its Honor Award in 1989, its Senior Achievement Award in 1998, and its Life Achievement Honor Award in 2009. A graduate of Stanford University and an AOA graduate of the Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Parke completed residency training at Baylor College of Medicine, serving as chief resident. He then completed two years of fellowship training in diseases and surgery of the retina and vitreous. His professional and scholarly activities have focused on that subspecialty and on medical education and biomedical organizational leadership and development.
Dr. Parke has held leadership positions on multiple professional and corporate boards. He is a founding member of MedEncentive, a company integrating evidence-based medicine into a pay-for-performance structure. He also serves on the board of directors of the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (OMIC), and previously chaired the Board of Directors of the Academic Physicians Insurance Company and of Medem, Inc., a San Francisco-based internet healthcare company. Dr. Parke’s other past medical leadership positions have included president of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology and director of the American Board of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Parke has served on the editorial board of several ophthalmic journals and was executive editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology. He is recognized in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World and Best Doctors in America. In 2009 he was elected to Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, a 70 member international body committed to global vision research, education, and service.
