THURSDAY, September 10, 2026

TOPIC:

Medical Freedom in Florida

Courage and Common Sense in Healthcare

Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD, is the State Surgeon General of Florida. He also serves as Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida, where his research examines behavioral economic strategies to reduce cardiovascular risk in low-income and disadvantaged populations.

Clinically, he has cared primarily for hospitalized patients. His research program has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and includes clinical trials of interventions for weight loss, smoking cessation, and cardiovascular disease prevention among people with HIV.

Dr. Ladapo’s studies have been published in leading medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Annals of Internal Medicine. His writings about health policy and public health have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Prior to joining the faculty of University of Florida, Dr. Ladapo was a tenured Associate Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Ladapo graduated from Wake Forest University and received his medical degree from Harvard and PhD in Health Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he received the Harvard Medical School Class of 2012 Resident Teaching Award and the Daniel E. Ford Award in Health Services and Outcomes Research from Johns Hopkins University.