Page 6 - RUSM 2023 Commencement Program

Keynote Commencement Speaker

Oliver Tate Brooks, MD
RUSM Board of Trustees Member

A member of the Ross University School of Medicine
(RUSM) Board of Trustees, Dr. Oliver Tate Brooks earned
his undergraduate degree in biology from Morehouse
College in Atlanta in 1977, graduating in three years. While
at Morehouse, he was awarded the Frederick E. Mapp Prize
in Biology for excellence in biology. Dr. Brooks received his
medical degree in 1981 from Howard University College of
Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics at Children’s
Hospital-Oakland, where he practiced for four years.
Dr. Brooks is interim chief executive officer, chief medical
officer and past chief of pediatric and adolescent medicine
at Watts Healthcare Corporation in Los Angeles, where he
also serves as the medical director of the Locke High School Wellness Centers. He is a medical
director consultant for L.A. Care Health Plan, one of the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care
plans. Dr. Brooks holds staff appointments at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood and Martin Luther
King Community Hospital in South Los Angeles. Dr. Brooks is past chair of the Community Clinic
Association of Los Angeles County, a consortium of 43 community health centers in the southern
California area.

Dr. Brooks is past president of the National Medical Association (NMA), and has held several
leadership positions within the NMA, including at the state and local level, as past president of the
Golden State Medical Association and past president of the Miller-Lawrence Medical and Dental
Society.
Dr. Brooks is a present board member and past president of the California Immunization Coalition
and chair of the Immunize LA Families Coalition. He is a member of the national Leadership Panel for
the Adolescent Immunization Initiative (AII), which advocated successfully for adding a column on the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) yearly vaccine recommendations in 2017. Dr. Brooks was asked to join the ACIP COVID-19
Work Group in June 2020 and was appointed as one of 15 members to the ACIP in July 2022. Dr.
Brooks also joined the Health and Human Services (HHS) COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force and served
as co-chair of the California State COVID-19 Vaccine Development Work Group. Additionally, Dr.
Brooks is past chair of the California Primary Care Association’s (CPCA) Clinician Committee and is a
board member of the American Kidney Fund.

His community service extends beyond health and wellness and includes serving as past president of
the Long Beach Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees.
Dr. Brooks has received numerous honors and awards. He was honored by the National Council of
Negro Women, Long Beach, California, for Outstanding Service to the Community and he was the
Wall of Excellence for Medicine awardee for Long Beach 2016 Black History Month. In 2019, Dr.
Brooks was honored as one of the Top Blacks in Healthcare by BlackDoctor.org.
Dr. Brooks is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi and Sigma Pi Phi (the Boule) fraternities. He is married
to his wife of 32 years, Lisa, and has two children, Alana and Joseph.

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