Ezra C. Davidson Jr. M.D. ‘54

Ezra C. Davidson, Jr., M.D. is Professor (past chairman 1971-96), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Currently, he also is professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCLA. He was chief-of-staff, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles (1971-1996). In this position in 1971 he developed a new and subsequently nationally-recognized, full-service academic department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Davidson received his B.S. cum laude from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and M.D. from Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. His residency training was at Harlem Hospital and his fellowship in blood coagulation was at Columbia University, both in New York City.

His major organizational responsibilities have included President, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Los Angeles Obstetrical and Gynecological Society; Chairman, Obstetrical and Gynecological Assembly of Southern California; Chairman, Section of Obstetrics and Gynecology National Medical Association (NMA); Chair, Board of Trustees, NMA; President of the Association Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics; President, Golden State Medical Association (Chapter, NMA); President, North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology; Co-Chair Board of Directors, National Advisory Board on Ethics in Reproduction (NABER); and most recently, President of the Association of Academic Minority Physicians.

His present responsibilities include Chair, Blue Shield of California Foundation Board of Trustees; Member of Council, Association of Academic Minority Physicians; Member, Board of Governors, Jacobs Institute of Women's Health; Board of Directors, Children’s’ Bureau of Southern California (President 1999-2002); Member, Board The Pacific Center for Law and Ethics, School of Law, University of Southern California; Member;  and Chair of the California Technology Assessment Forum.

Dr. Davidson has chaired the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (US Department of Health and Human Services) and the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He served on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Advisory Committee to the Director and the Advisory Committee on Clinical Research. He Co-Chaired the NIH Work Group to Develop Guidelines for Federal Funding for Human Embryonic Pluripotent Stem Cell Research. He was a member of the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) and past-chair of the Board of Directors for the California Wellness Foundation. Until recently, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California. He has been elected to the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, Fellowship ad eundem, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.