Alfonso Mejia, MDOrthopedic Surgeon
Dr. Alfonso Mejia, MD, MPH, FAAOS, is a Chicago orthopaedic hand surgeon and vice head of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), and past chair of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ (AAOS) 2023, and Board of Councilors.
An active AAOS volunteer leader for more than three decades, Dr. Mejia has helped shape orthopaedic surgical education, bringing important musculoskeletal health issues and solutions to AAOS leadership.
He is a past-president of the Illinois Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He was president of the American Association of Latino Orthopaedic Surgeons from 2018-2021. He also demonstrated his commitment to health equity and increasing diversity amongst surgeons as a former member of the AAOS’ Diversity Advisory Board.
Dr. Mejia is a certified police officer and certified in Counter Narcotics and Terrorism Operational Medical Support. He has volunteered since 2000 as a medical director and tactical emergency medical support physician for the South Suburban Emergency Response Team, a Chicago-area SWAT team that provides emergency care at high-risk crime scenes. He has served as the editor of 10 textbooks on emergency medical responses.
A professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery, Dr. Mejia has influenced the careers of hundreds of orthopaedic surgeons. At UIC, he serves as program director of orthopaedic surgery residency. At AAOS, he has served on the Education Council to help refine continuing education curricula to better meet AAOS members’ individual needs.
His credits include more than 120 presentations and journal articles. Overlapping with his earlier roles at UIC, Dr. Mejia also served as a senior attending physician at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago. He graduated from UIC with a dual degree in medicine and a master’s in public health, followed by an orthopaedic hand surgery fellowship at the University of Louisville. He holds a bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology and microbiology from the University of Michigan.