Amy E. Foxx-Orenstein, DO, FACG Elected ACG President

Newswise — Amy E. Foxx-Orenstein, DO, FACG, was elected by the membership as the 2007-2008 president of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), a national specialty association representing more than 10,000 clinical gastroenterologists and other specialists in digestive diseases. Dr. Foxx-Orenstein officially took her position as president during the College's Annual Scientific Meeting, held this week in Philadelphia. In this position, Dr. Foxx-Orenstein will direct ACG's programs which include continuing medical education in the clinical, scientific and patient-related skills of gastroenterology, policies involving national and state medical affairs, managed care issues and clinical investigation.

Dr. Foxx-Orenstein attended the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1981. She attended medical school at The University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa. She was chief intern at Oakland General Hospital (osteopathic) in Michigan and completed her internal medicine residency at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA. Dr. Foxx-Orenstein trained in gastroenterology at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia (MCV) in Richmond where she completed fellowships in nutrition and gastroenterology and was the first Wilson Cooke fellow in therapeutic endoscopy. She subsequently served as an NIH research fellow working on mechanisms responsible for the peristaltic reflex and intestinal transit. She was the first woman gastroenterologist on the MCV faculty and helped establish their center in clinical gastrointestinal motility disorders.

Currently, Dr. Foxx-Orenstein is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and consultant for the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Dr. Foxx-Orenstein is involved in patient care and clinical and translational research focused on motility disorders of the gut, enteric neuroscience and serotonin metabolism. Dr. Foxx-Orenstein is the recipient of two Outstanding Educator of the Year awards, a Clinical Scholar Award, and numerous clinical research awards. She also has active NIH grant funding. She currently serves as an ad hoc manuscript reviewer for The American Journal of Gastroenterology, American Journal of Physiology, Gastroenterology, Gut, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Diseases of the Esophagus, and the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

Dr. Foxx-Orenstein is a fellow of the American College of Physicians as well as a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. She is a member of the Motility, Esophageal, and Endoscopy Interest Groups, the Enteric Neuroscience Program (ENSP) and the Clinical Enteric Neuroscience Translational and Epidemiologic Research Center (CENTER) at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. She serves as a member of the Outpatient Practice Committee at Mayo Clinic and is chair of the task force on Improved Patient Understanding.

Dr. Foxx-Orenstein has been an extremely active member of the ACG. A member of the Board of Trustees since 2002, Dr. Foxx-Orenstein has served as both Treasurer and Vice President of the College. Her generous contributions of time, effort, and creativity to the College encompass service as a member of numerous committees, including serving as Chair of the ACG's Women in Gastroenterology Committee (1998-2000), Chair of the Patient Care Committee (2000-2003), member of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee (1998-2001), and Chair of the Abstract Review Subcommittee for Outcomes Research (2000). Since 2005, Dr. Foxx-Orenstein has been a member of the National Affairs Committee.

"It is an honor and privilege to serve the membership of this great organization," said Dr. Foxx-Orenstein. "I am looking forward to an exciting, challenging and memorable year."

Dr. Foxx-Orenstein and her husband, Dr. Robert Orenstein, and her daughter, Aliya Lyn, live in Rochester, Minnesota.

Photographs of Dr. Foxx-Orenstein are available by contacting Rosanne Riesenman (301) 263-9000.