David W. Parke II, MD

Dr. Parke is CEO of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The Academy is the world’s largest ophthalmology organization, with over 32,000 members and offices in San Francisco and Washington, DC. Prior to assuming this role in 2009, 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. He served as president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2008. A graduate of Stanford University and of the Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Parke completed residency training and chief residency at Baylor’s Cullen Eye Institute followed by 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 health policy and biomedical organizational leadership and development. Dr. Parke has served on the boards of a number of companies including MedEncentive Inc., OMIC, FIGMD, DigiSight Technologies, the Academic Physicians Insurance Company and Medem, Inc. Other past medical leadership positions have included president of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and director of the American Board of Ophthalmology.