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Andrew LaMar

Sacramento - The California Medical Association, the nation's second-largest state medical association, announced today that Dustin Corcoran, who has worked for CMA for nearly 12 years, has been promoted to chief executive officer.

Corcoran has advocated tirelessly for California physicians and the patients they serve since 1998 and led CMA's lobbying efforts for five years before becoming Deputy CEO last fall. The CMA Board of Trustees voted to approve Corcoran's appointment at its quarterly meeting Friday.

“Over his 12 years with CMA, Dustin has an outstanding track record and has shown himself to be incredibly skilled at advocating on behalf of California physicians and understanding the issues they confront every day,” said Brennan Cassidy, MD, president of CMA. “Dustin brings tremendous leadership to CMA at the time we most need it, when physicians are fighting like never before to maintain practice viability and improve the quality of care and access to care for all of their patients.”

Corcoran joined CMA in 1998 as the membership coordinator for its political action committee. When an opportunity arose to work as a lobbyist under the legendary late Steve Thompson, he jumped at the chance. Over the next six years, Thompson mentored Corcoran, who was responsible for bills related to access to care, emergency medicine, hospitals, tobacco usage, public health and health care system reform.

Corcoran played an important part in lobbying the Legislature to pass, and Gov. Gray Davis to sign, SB 2, groundbreaking legislation authored by Sen. John Burton that required employers to provide their workers with health insurance or pay a fee. The bill would have extended coverage to more than 1 million uninsured Californians, but voters subsequently narrowly overturned the law, after restaurants and retailers heavily financed a campaign against it.

After Thompson’s death in 2004, Corcoran took over as CMA’s head lobbyist and went on to become Senior Vice President. Corcoran was named the most effective lobbyist under 40 in 2005 by Around The Capitol and one of the 100 most powerful political brokers in California in 2009 by Capitol Weekly.

In addition to his work at CMA, Corcoran sits on the Board of Directors for the Neuropathy Action Foundation.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to step into this role,” Corcoran said. “It’s an honor to work for such a wonderful profession. The work that physicians do is truly amazing and I could not think of a job I would rather have than serving the physician community.”

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The California Medical Association represents more than 35,000 physicians in all modes of practice and specialties. CMA is dedicated to the health of all patients in California.