Octavia Peck Palmer, an associate professor of pathology, critical care medicine, and clinical and translational sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, was named president-elect of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. She will serve one year as president-elect. She will then serve successive terms as the association’s president from August 2023 through July 2024, and as past president from August 2024 through July 2025.
Dr. Peck Palmer stated that “I look forward to working with AACC’s leadership, staff, and members to continue to equip laboratory medicine professionals to successfully adapt to the complex challenges and greater demands in health care today. I strive to build upon the organization’s rich history of raising public awareness of laboratory medicine; providing multifaceted educational resources; advocating for health equity; leading global outreach efforts that empower resource-limited clinical laboratories; and driving advancements in the field that improve patient care.”
In addition to her faculty appointments at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Peck Palmer serves as the division director of clinical chemistry and as medical director of UPMC Presbyterian and Shadyside hospitals and automated testing laboratories. She is also the assistant medical director of the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh automated testing laboratory.
Dr. Peck Palmer is a graduate of Columbia College in South Carolina, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in physiology from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston
