Daniel Lasser, M.D., M.P.H.,

Daniel Lasser, M.D., M.P.H., has chaired the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMass Medical School since 1998. He is also Chairman and Associate Dean for Commonwealth Medicine at UMass Medical School/UMass Memorial Health Care. He is responsible for coordinating the Medical School's academic resources devoted to Commonwealth Medicine. In this role he works to nurture the linkage between the Medical School's academic departments and the public service activities conducted by Commonwealth Medicine.

Dr. Lasser received his training in family medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He received his medical degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his Master's degree in Public Health from Harvard University with a concentration in Health Policy and Management. He started his professional career as a volunteer field physician in the USPHS National Health Services Corps (NHSC), with assignment to a rural practice in Western Massachusetts. He subsequently served in a leadership role in the Boston NHSC Office, with responsibility for the program's clinical affairs across the New England region. He joined the faculty at the Medical School in 1979 as director of the school's Family Practice residency, a program that trains residents in several distinct tracks, including a rural and a federally-designated Section 330 community health center.

Throughout his professional career, Dr. Lasser has maintained a clinical practice at a community health center, and he has devoted his academic efforts to the support and training of health professionals for service to underserved populations.