Mississippi OB/GYN Leads National Medical Regulatory Group

Just after Easter, Freda McKissic Bush, MD, took over as chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to lead the national organization representing 70 state medical and osteopathic boards.

Bush, an OB/GYN at East Lakeland Ob-Gyn Associates in Jackson, was elected to the post behind only one other Mississippian, R. N. Whitfield, MD, in 1948, and was installed as chair of the FSMB Board of Directors during the organization's 98th annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

To prepare for the role, Bush had served a dozen years on the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure (MSBML), and two years as president and chair of the Joint Practice Committee between the MSBML and the Mississippi Board of Nursing. She represents the first female—and the first African American—to serve as president of the Central Medical Society in 1995.

Since 2003, Bush has served on the FSMB Board of Directors, highlighted by a term as treasurer before being elected chair-elect of the organization. She has served as a member of the Step 3 Committee of the U. S. Medical Licensing Examination, the tri-step examination for medical licensure in the United States that is co-sponsored by the FSMB and the National Board of Medical Examiners.

"I saw these leadership opportunities as preparation for the national positions," said Bush, who considers Beverly McMillan, MD, a fellow OB/GYN and the senior practice partner, as her long-time mentor. "Dr. McMillan, founder of the first abortion clinic in Mississippi, as a Christian has become a strong pro-life advocate. She demonstrated how you could have principles of conviction that may not be popular or politically correct and still have a successful practice."

During the past school year, Bush has served as a mentor for third year medical students through a mentoring program with the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC).

"My principle role model is my mother," Bush pointed out. "She pursued her dream of becoming a teacher by going to school over the years ... and graduated from college two weeks before the birth of her ninth child. When I began medical school, it was with three children and (I) had a fourth while in medical school. I was confident I could do it because my mother did."

For two years before Bush graduated from Columbia University as a certified nurse midwife in 1970, she juggled a heavy school load with work as a clinical instructor in maternity nursing at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. After working at Harlem Hospital in the early 1970s, Bush was named director of Nurse Midwifery Programs for the University of Mississippi. After schooling nurse-midwives in the specialty, she helped place them in jobs across the South. In 1983, Bush earned a medical degree from the University of Mississippi College of Medicine. Four years later, she completed an OB/GYN residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tenn. Board-certified, she is now a partner with East Lakeland OB-GYN Associates in Jackson.

Bush considers co-authoring Hooked, New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children with Joe McIlhaney, founder of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, her most successful accomplishment as a female healthcare leader.

"I've been working for years in my practice and in the culture to influence strategically young women to raise the standard in their sexual behavior," she told the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association. "This book brought the science into the discussion in a practical way that would inform and empower them to do just that. No longer was the discussion just on the physical effect of ... sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy, but on the larger, more persuasive impact on the emotions and the effect on the brain chemistry, which drives the thinking and thus the behavior. Women listen to women. As a woman in medicine, I was proud to be able to use the science in a practical way to help women and thus families and the larger community."

Bush, who spends much of her time speaking about sex education, sexually transmitted diseases and social behavior education, has served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention, Medical Institute of Sexual Health and Out of Wedlock Pregnancy Task Force for the Mississippi Legislature.

In the national post, which ends next year, Bush is leading the not-for-profit organization in its efforts to continuously improve the quality, safety and integrity of healthcare by developing and promoting high standards for physician licensure and practice.

"We're delighted to have an accomplished leader such as Dr. Bush serve as chair of our Board of Directors, at a time when there's much going on in the nation's capital and in state capitals," said FSMB CEO Humayun Chaudhry, DO. "She brings exceptional dedication and passion to the FSMB and a sincere commitment to supporting state medical boards in their mission of protecting the public through effective medical licensure and discipline."

Bush and her husband of 41 years, Lee, have four children and seven grandchildren. "At the end of my career and my life," she emphasized, "it's family that will matter most to me.

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