Distinguished Professor Earns Health Care Hero Lifetime Achievement Award

Joanna Norris, Associate Director 

Department of Public Relations 

(904) 620-2102 

Dr. Yank D. Coble Jr., a Distinguished Professor in the Brooks College of Health and director of the Center for Global Health and Medical Diplomacy at the University of North Florida, will receive the Health Care Hero Lifetime Achievement award from the Jacksonville Business Journal for his contributions over the years to the health care field. 

The Business Journal will honor Coble and several Northeast Florida professionals who improve health care and save lives during its Health Care Heroes Awards Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, at the Marriott Southpoint. 

Coble, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident, is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine and serves as chair of the Healthcare and Bioscience Council of Northeast Florida as well as chair of the World Medical Association Caring Physicians of the World initiative. He also serves on the board of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research and Medicine. 

A graduate of Duke University’s School of Medicine, Coble was a Jacksonville clinical endocrinologist for more than 35 years and has served as president of the American Medical Association and the World Medical Association. He is also president emeritus of the American College of Physicians and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists as well as emeritus board member of Research!America. 

Additionally, he served on the board of directors of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the National Quality Forum, chair of the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs and Public Health and chair of the Physicians Consortium for Performance Improvement. He was a National Institutes of Health International Research awardee and served on the advisory board of the NIH and the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. 

Locally, Coble served on the founding boards of the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. and Leadership Jacksonville as well as the boards of Community Hospice of Northeast Florida and the Jacksonville Arts Assembly. Additionally, he is emeritus director of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. He holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from UNF, an honorary Professor of Medicine at Shanghai University Medical School and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Duke University. 

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