As physician-in-chief, Dr. Smith is Northwell Health’s senior physician on all clinical issues. He previously served as Northwell’s Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Smith is the founding Dean of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, which received full accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and whose first class graduated in 2015.
Dr. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Fordham University and a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. His residency in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital was followed by military service as a captain in the Army Medical Corps at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Denver.
Dr. Smith has held senior leadership positions in national societies for medical education and residency training, authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in the area of medical education, and has received many awards and honors from national and international organizations. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Fordham College. In 2011, he was elected to Mastership of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Smith was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2014, invited to join the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017 and made Chair of the Gold Foundation’s Program Committee in 2018. Dr. Smith serves on the Executive Committee and as Treasurer for the Associated Medical Schools of New York. He serves as the Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Health Literacy and is a member of the NYS Board of Education Advisory Committee on Long-Term Clinical Clerkships and on the University of Rochester’s Board of Trustees Advisory Council. He is a former regent of the American College of Physicians, former member-at-large of the National Board of Medical Examiners and former member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Smith is the first recipient of the Lawrence Scherr, M.D., Professorship of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He was the recipient of the Solomon A. Berson Alumni Achievement Award in Health Science by New York University School of Medicine.
