Donald Waters, retired Executive Director of the Oakland-based Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association (ACCMA), will discuss ground-breaking programs launched by the ACCMA in 1945 that boldly guaranteed high quality medical care to everyone in the community.  Drawing on research he conducted to chronicle the ACCMA’s accomplishments, he will discuss how ACCMA leaders created a local solution to public concerns by aggressively proclaiming that everyone can receive medical care from a member of Association, regardless of their ability to pay for that care.  Furthermore, the ACCMA guaranteed that every physician in the Association would be held accountable for the quality of care they provide.  This program drew praise locally and nationwide from the news media, was featured in national publications and radio programs, and hailed in medical conventions, by civic and labor organizations, and on the floor of the U.S. Congress. 

Donald W. Waters worked for the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association (ACCMA) from 1982 until February 1st, 2017.  He served as its Executive Director from 2009 until  his retirement in 2017, after serving for 25 years as Assistant Executive Director and two years as Managing Editor of ACCMA Publications.  Throughout his career he assisted the physician leaders of the Association in determining how best to assist and advocate for its members and the patients they served, and as a liaison on their behalf to elected officials, government agencies, other health care organizations, and the general public.  Mr. Waters is a native of Maryland, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.  In 2006 he earned a Masters in Business Administration at St. Mary’s College of California, in Moraga.  He moved to California in 1982 to accept a position on the ACCMA staff.

This event is brought to you by the UCSF Library Archives & Special Collections and Bay Area History of Medicine Society.

Archives Talks are free and open to the public.