Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH

Bio

Dr. Adams was re-appointed by Governor Eric J. Holcomb as the Indiana State Health Commissioner effective January 9, 2017.  He was first appointed state health commissioner by Governor Mike Pence on October 22, 2014.  In this role, he oversees the Public Health Protection and Laboratory Services, Health and Human Services, Health Care Quality and Regulatory, and Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Commissions.  He also serves as secretary of the Indiana State Department of Health's executive board, as chairman of the Indiana State Trauma Care Committee and as co-chairman of the Indiana Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative Governing Council. Dr. Adams is a member of the Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana, the National Governor's Association (NGA) Health Workforce Policy Academy Core Team, and the Indiana Commission to Combat Drug Abuse. 

Dr. Adams currently serves as assistant professor of clinical anesthesia at Indiana University School of Medicine and as a staff anesthesiologist at Eskenazi Health, where he is Chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee.  He has served in the leadership of several professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, and on the Boards of the Indiana State Medical Association and Indiana Society of Anesthesiologists. He is immediate past Chair of the Professional Diversity Committee for the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Dr. Adams has been invited to testify before both the U.S. Senate (Committee on Aging) and the U.S. House of Representatives (Energy and Commerce) and has been an invited presenter and/or participant in healthcare discussions at The White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Academy of Sciences.

He earned a B.S. in biochemistry and a B.A. in biopsychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  He has been a researcher at medical schools in both the Netherlands and Zimbabwe and has worked under Nobel Prize winner Dr. Tom Cech.  He earned his Medical Doctorate at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and his Masters of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.