Wayne Joseph Riley, M.D. is the President of the State University of New York (SUNY), Downstate Health Sciences University where he also holds academic rank as Professor of Internal Medicine and of Health Policy & Management. Dr. Riley is a Commissioner of the U.S. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Chair of the Board of Directors of the New York Academy of Medicine and a President Emeritus of the 150,000 member American College of Physicians, the nation’s largest medical specialty organization. From January 2007 until July 2013, Dr. Riley was the 10th President and Chief Executive Officer of Meharry Medical College. Prior to that time, he served as a corporate officer and member of the senior management team as the Vice-President and Vice Dean for Health Affairs and Governmental Relations and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He joined the faculty there after completing residency training in Baylor’s highly regarded internal medicine residency training program.
Dr. Riley, a general internist well versed in clinical medicine, healthcare and healthcare management and policy, is an elected member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Master of the American College of Physicians and a member of the Society of Medical Administrators (SOMA), an organization composed of the nation’s leading physician executives. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University; a Master of Public Health in Health Systems Management from Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine; an M.D. from the Morehouse School of Medicine and an MBA from Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.
Dr. Riley is an Independent Director of Compass Pathways, plc, where he serves on the Compensation and Leadership Development and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. Dr. Riley previously served as an Independent Director of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he served on the Corporate Governance & Nominating and Science & Technology committees, as a Director of Pinnacle Financial Partners, where he served on the Audit and Compliance, Nominating and Corporate Governance and Community Affairs committees, and as a member of the Nashville Branch Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
In his rare spare time, Dr. Riley, a jazz aficionado also enjoys reading, golf and spectator sports.