Los Angeles family physician Jack Chou, M.D., takes office as CMA’s 158th president
Los Angeles family physician Jack Chou, M.D., assumed office as the 158th president of the California Medical Association (CMA) at the conclusion of the association’s annual House of Delegates meeting this weekend in Sacramento.
Addressing physician delegates on Saturday, Dr. Chou called for a shared commitment to protecting access to care, strengthening relationships within medicine and ensuring technology serves patients and physicians.
“I cannot promise an easy year or that every fight will go our way,” Dr. Chou said. “But I can promise you this: none of us will face it alone.”
Building and Protecting Trust
Dr. Chou grounded his remarks in an encounter from his first day on a general surgery rotation as a medical student at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. An uninsured, undocumented patient who spoke no English repeatedly asked him in Mandarin whether she would be OK. He reassured her that she would — a promise he later recognized he could not guarantee.
The patient recovered, but the encounter stayed with him. She had been asking not only about her condition, he said, but whether she could trust him.
Years later, Dr. Chou helped develop language access services for Mandarin-speaking patients at Kaiser Permanente. That work reinforced the importance of helping patients understand their care while ensuring physicians have the resources to meet their needs.
He told delegates, trust underlies the challenges facing medicine, from federal Medicaid changes and the fight to protect Proposition 35 funding to the growing role of artificial intelligence.
A Call to Advocate, Connect and Lead
Dr. Chou asked his physician colleagues to work with him to protect access to care and Medi-Cal funding, bringing patient stories into advocacy so policy decisions begin with people.
He also urged delegates to connect the optimism of medical students, residents and early career physicians with the experience of longtime physician leaders. “Optimism without experience gets burned," he said. "Experience without optimism stops fighting. And we need both.”
Acknowledging that disagreements understandably do exist within organized medicine, Dr. Chou encouraged colleagues to maintain respect for one another’s commitment. “So when we disagree, question the argument, not the commitment of the person who's making it.”
A Career Rooted in Service
A board-certified family physician and fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Chou practices at Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center, where he has served as chief of the Family Medicine Department since 2018. He is also a partner in the Southern California Permanente Medical Group.
Dr. Chou served as speaker of CMA’s House of Delegates from 2022 to 2025, following three years as vice speaker. He has represented the Los Angeles County Medical Association in the House since 2001 and previously served on CMA’s Board of Trustees and Council on Ethical Affairs. He is also a past president of the California Academy of Family Physicians.
Raised in a small rural town in Taiwan, Dr. Chou earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Miami and his medical degree from the University of Southern California. He completed his family medicine residency at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills.
Dr. Chou succeeds San Luis Obispo pediatrician René Bravo, M.D., who will continue to serve on the CMA Executive Committee as immediate past president.
The full 2026-2027 CMA Executive Committee includes:
President: Jack Chou, M.D., Los Angeles
President-Elect: Sergio R. Flores, M.D., San Diego
Chair of the Board: Eric Hansen, D.O., Hesperia
Vice-Chair of the Board: Holly Yang, M.D., San Diego
Speaker of the House: George Fouras, M.D., Los Angeles
Vice Speaker of the House: Anna Yap, M.D., Sacramento
Immediate Past President: René Bravo, M.D., San Luis Obispo
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