Skip to main content

Thomas L. Ely, DO, FACOFP, FAAFP


Thomas L. Ely, DO, FACOFP, FAAFP, was inaugurated as the 124th president of the American Osteopathic Association on July 18, 2020.

President Ely is an AOA board-certified osteopathic family physician and fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians. A member of the AOA since 1980, Dr. Ely was elected to the AOA’s Board of Trustees in 2006 and has been a delegate representing Tennessee in the AOA’s House of Delegates since 1998.

Dr. Ely is past president of the Tennessee Osteopathic Medical Association and a member of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians. He was appointed to the Tennessee Board of Osteopathic Examination (licensure board) for 9 years.

Prior to attending what is now the Kansas City (Missouri) University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Ely served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, which included two combat tours in Vietnam, serving as a “Dustoff” medical evacuation pilot. Following osteopathic medical school, he re-entered the military as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and completed a family medicine internship and residency at DeWitt Army Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He retired from the Army in 1988 with the rank of lieutenant colonel and went into private practice as a family physician in Clarksville, Tennessee, and subsequently served as the chief medical officer for the Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville from 2002 to 2015.

Dr. Ely has no discloures.