Executive Director of Graduate Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official
Northeast Georgia Health System
Gainesville, GA

Dr. Dereck DeLeon is an executive physician leader, educator, and the Executive Director of Graduate Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official (DIO) at Northeast Georgia Health System. In this executive capacity, he oversees the strategic growth, clinical learning environments, and quality of residency and fellowship programs, while expanding clinical research and academic partnerships throughout Georgia. Board-certified in family medicine, Dr. DeLeon brings over two decades of experience designing innovative medical curricula, building GME infrastructure, and advancing health system workforce strategies.

Prior to joining Northeast Georgia Health System, Dr. DeLeon served as Chief Academic Officer at Nuvance Health, directing academic operations, graduate medical education, global health, and clinical research across affiliated institutions in New York and Connecticut. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Chief Academic Officer, and DIO at Cone Health, concurrently leading as Executive Director of the Greensboro Area Health Education Center (AHEC) to bridge academic medicine and community care across North Carolina. Earlier in his career, Dr. DeLeon dedicated more than two decades to Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, California, where he was the founding Program Director for the Family Medicine Residency, Associate DIO, and Co-Chair of Graduate Medical Education, and contributed to foundational curriculum and diversity planning for the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.

Dr. DeLeon earned dual bachelor’s degrees in molecular biology and economics from the University of Washington and received his medical degree from the Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. He completed his family medicine residency at Loma Linda University / Riverside University Health System, serving as Chief Resident, and has completed advanced fellowships in faculty development at UC San Diego, curriculum design, and healthcare leadership through Duke University. Dr. DeLeon has held clinical faculty appointments at the University of California, San Diego, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. Throughout his career, he has been a tireless champion for health equity and healthcare workforce pipelines, spearheading numerous community mentoring and academic partnership initiatives to open doors for underrepresented students entering health professions.