Ronald David, MD
Board Member – Los Angeles, CA

The Rev. Dr. Ronald David, or Ron, as he prefers to be addressed, is a physician and priest.  He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and a Doctor of Medicine degree with honors (the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society).  Ron was resident and chief resident in pediatrics and fellow in neonatal perinatal medicine at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital where he was subsequently appointed assistant professor of pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology.  As assistant professor Ron was the conceptual architect and co-founder of the Transitional Infant Care program at the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh.

After 7 years of rewarding work in academic and clinical medicine Ron accepted an invitation to join the ranks of public health administrators and was appointed deputy secretary of health for then Governor Robert P. Casey in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  In Ron’s fourth year with the Casey administration, he was appointed acting secretary of health and afforded the opportunity to participate in the leadership program for senior executives at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Shortly thereafter Ron joined the Kennedy School faculty as a lecturer in public policy where his research interest was women’s health as it defined and affected by patriarchal politics and power.  From 1995 to 2007 Ron continued to serve as adjunct faculty to the executive leadership program at the Kennedy School of Government and for the South Carolina Executive Institute.

Yearning for a return to clinical and academic medicine Ron accepted an invitation to be chief medical officer of the District of Columbia Health and Hospitals Public Benefit Corporation.  There he witnessed much despair, dysfunction, and disease.  This was a time of spiritual discernment for Ron and he was then set on a conscious path to ordained ministry.  In 2003 he earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary, and he was ordained to the priesthood (Episcopal Church USA) on July 15, 2006.

Ron is certified as a clinical chaplain and Diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy and currently serves as chaplain and supervisor of clinical pastoral education at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles, California.  There he has the opportunity to meld his vocations as physician and priest through an interdisciplinary study and practice of the science and theology of health. 

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