Scott Nass, M.D., pictured here with Maria Portela Martinez, M.D., and Joedrecka Brown Speights, M.D., Health Equity Fellows at George Washington University.

West Covina family physician Scott Nass, M.D., has been named president-elect of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality (formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association). GLMA is the world's largest and oldest association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) health care professionals.

Dr. Nass has been actively involved in organized medicine and LGBT health advocacy throughout his medical career, but his work in public policy actually began before his career in medicine.

"I fell in love with public policy during grad school," said Dr. Nass. "For the first time, I had the chance to sit around and talk about the world's problems and then − although it was a protected grad school environment − devise real world solutions to try to solve them. Of course, once I got into that real world, I realized how difficult it was to solve those gigantic problems."

Dr. Nass worked in center-city Chicago for a year after grad school and then moved to Los Angeles to work with the Sundance Institute. The injustices that he saw during these first few years is what inspired him to go into medicine. "I became aware of the human face of urban centers, and after working with Sundance for two years, helping artists tell such amazing human stories, I decided that medicine was the next best path for me to help underserved Americans tell their stories."

Today, Dr. Nass is a strong advocate and leader in advancing LGBT health equality. As a member of CMA, GLMA and American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), he actively supports organized medicine and encourages other physicians as well as medical students to take an active role in health policy. “There really is no greater power to create health and wellness than when we combine our voices as organized medicine,” said Dr. Nass.

In his new role as GLMA president-elect, Dr. Nass plans to focus on growing and diversifying membership, especially at the student and resident levels. He believes that having a strong pipeline will not only provide GLMA with leaders in the future, but will also grant perspective around LGBT equality to those who are participating in organized medicine.

Dr. Nass previously served as secretary of GLMA's Board of Directors and was co-convener for the AAFP GLBT Caucus. He also served multiple years as GLBT delegate to the AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders and is an inaugural Leaders for Health Equity Fellow at George Washington University.