Dev GnanaDev, M.D., was elected president of the Medical Board of California at the board's quarterly meeting Friday in San Francisco. Dr. GnanaDev has been a member of the medical board since 2011, and was reappointed to a second term by Gov. Jerry Brown in June 2015. He previously served as the medical board’s vice president.

Dr. GnanaDev, who was president of the California Medical Association (CMA) from 2008 to 2009, is a trauma surgeon and chairman of the Department of Surgery at San Bernardino's county hospital, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC), where he was medical director from 2000 to 2012. Dr. GnanaDev also is the founder of a new non-profit, private medical school—California University of Science and Medicine—to be based in the Inland Empire.

“Dr. GnanaDev is not only an exceptional leader, but a gifted physician, who possesses a meticulous understanding of medicine and the health care challenges facing physicians today,” said CMA President Steven Larson, M.D., MPH. “He is the perfect physician to lead the medical board, and we congratulate him on his election as the board’s new president.”

Spending his entire medical career in public hospital settings, Dr. GnanaDev has worked to establish several programs intended to assist those who might otherwise not have received necessary medical care. These programs included ARMC’s Cardiac Health Management Program, which provides free services to uninsured patients who are recovering from heart attacks and coronary bypasses.

Other community health efforts championed by Dr. GnanaDev include a laser tattoo-removal program to help former gang members re-enter mainstream society, as well as a community-wide initiative to help improve the health of San Bernardino's African-American population.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. GnanaDev also brought a team of 16 physicians to Houston to treat evacuees injured by the storm.

“Dr. GnanaDev’s vast achievements in medicine prove, without a doubt, that he has the strength of character and knowledge to provide unparalleled leadership as the board’s new president,” said CMA CEO Dustin Corcoran. “The medical board is in good hands.”

Dr. GnanaDev is past president of the San Bernardino County Medical Society and the Tri-County Surgical Society. He has been a clinical professor of surgery at the Western University for Health Sciences since 1995 and an associate professor of surgery at Loma Linda University since 1993. He has been president and chief executive officer of the California University of Science and Medicine since 2012.

Dr. GnanaDev earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Kurnool Medical College in India.