Wanda Filer, MD, MBA

Wanda D. Filer, MD, MBA, a family physician in York, Pennsylvania, serves as an Academy representative on the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation. Filer was elected to a three-year term in September 2011 by the AAFP’s governing body, the Congress of Delegates.

As a board member of the Foundation, Filer advocates on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. Filer has been a practicing family physician for more than 25 years. She is the founder and president of the Strategic Health Institute in York, Pennsylvania, a health policy and public health consulting firm dedicated to building awareness of today’s health issues and the need for change. In addition, Filer is a family physician at East York Family Medicine where she sees patients on a part-time basis.

A member of the AAFP since 1987, Filer serves on the board of FamMedPAC, the AAFP’s political action committee. A member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians since 1987, Filer is a past-president and currently serves as the chapter’s delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

At the state level, Filer has the distinction of having served as the first Physician General of Pennsylvania, where she acted as public health advisor to then Governor Tom Ridge. She also has served as an ad hoc member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine and Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition, Filer is past-president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Cancer Society. She is the current chair of Visions of Hope for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, which is focused on the prevention of child sexual assault. Filer also worked for 18 years as a health correspondent for WGAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Filer earned a combined undergraduate and medical degree from Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania, and her doctorate degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. She completed her family medicine residency at Underwood Memorial Hospital in Woodbury, New Jersey, where she also served as chief resident. Filer earned an executive MBA from Pennsylvania State University.