AMGA President, CEO Donald Fisher dies of cancer

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) announced that its longtime president and CEO, Donald Fisher, PhD, died of cancer on March 26.

Fisher, 71, had been in charge of the organization since 1980, when it was known as AGPA. The organization called him a “strong advocate for multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care and for the patients served by these systems,” helping to expand AMGA from 7,000 members when he took over to more than 175,000 today.

“Don leaves a professional and personal legacy that is not bound by time or physical space,” Donn Sorensen, chair of the AMGA Board of Directors, said in a statement. “His dedication to advancing the best possible patient care, to leading with integrity, and to building a great place to work, not forgetting to have a little fun while accomplishing much, have made a permanent mark on the hearts of all who knew him. We will miss him greatly.”

Fisher earned a BS in biology/chemistry from Millsaps College in 1968, his MS in anatomy from the University of Mississippi, School of Medicine in 1971 and a PhD in anatomy from the University of Mississippi in 1973, according to AMGA. Before serving as the group’s director for nearly 37 years, he was the first executive director for the American Academy of Physician Assistants.