David W. Parke II, MD
David W. Parke II, MD, is the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a position he assumed April 1, 2009, after a distinguished career as a practicing ophthalmologist with a subspecialty focus in retina/vitreous. The American Academy of Ophthalmology is a leader in ophthalmic education, physician and patient advocacy, understanding health care delivery dilemmas, and educational and technological innovations.
Dr. Parke served as president of the Academy in 2008. He is a fellow of the Academy and received its Honor Award in 1989 and its Senior Achievement Award in 1998. As a second-year resident in 1979, he was appointed to his first Academy committee and has since served on 26 separate committees and task forces. In 2001, he was elected senior secretary for ophthalmic practice and served on the Academy’s Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2008.
Dr. Parke was president and chief executive officer of the Dean McGee Eye Institute from 1992 to 2009. The McGee Eye Institute is one of the nation's largest nonprofit facilities devoted solely to research, clinical care and education in ophthalmology and vision science. It has nearly 400 faculty and staff and consistently ranks in the top 10 nationally in terms of NEI research grant support. Dr. Parke was also Edward L. Gaylord Professor and chair of the department of ophthalmology in the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.
A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Stanford University and an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Parke completed residency training at Baylor College of Medicine, serving as chief resident. He then completed two years of fellowship training in diseases and surgery of the retina and vitreous. His professional activities have focused on that subspecialty and on medical education and biomedical organizational leadership and development.
Dr. Parke has held leadership positions on multiple professional boards. He is a founding member of MedEncentive, a company integrating evidence-based medicine into a pay-for-performance structure. He is also a director of the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (OMIC), chaired the board of directors of the Academic Physicians Insurance Company and was on the board of directors of Medem, Inc., a San Francisco-based Internet health care company. Dr. Parke’s other past medical leadership positions have included president of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology and director of the American Board of Ophthalmology.
He has served on the editorial board of two ophthalmic journals and was executive editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology. He has received numerous biomedical research grants and was awarded the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Medical Service at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Parke lectures widely on topics in retinal diseases and surgery, academic professional development, medical liability insurance and medical organizational leadership and management. He is recognized in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World and Best Doctors in America.
While living in Oklahoma, his community activities included board member of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and past board member of the Oklahoma Economic Development Foundation and of the Casady School. Dr. Parke was vice president of the board of trustees of the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation and served for 10 years on the board of the Presbyterian Health Foundation.
Dr. Parke’s wife, Julie T. Parke, MD, was Presbyterian Health Foundation Professor in the department of neurology at University of Oklahoma and director of the Section of Child Neurology. The Parkes have three children: Will, a first-year ophthalmology resident at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute; Laura, a research associate at Sanford C. Bernstein, Inc. of New York City; and Lindsey, a first-year law student at the University of Georgia.
