Avon, MN
Phone: (320) 845-2472(h) (320) 630-5838 (c)
Email: daron.gersch@centracare.com
It is an honor to serve as your vice speaker. The last 2.5 years have been nothing short of amazing. Sometimes it is hard to believe everything that has occurred over that time. These have been interesting times and I am grateful to be a part of them.
I look forward to the challenges ahead. I believe that family medicine is the specialty that the United States desperately needs to improve our health care system. I will continue to be your voice.
It has been inspiring to work with NCCL, the residents and the students. Their energy and enthusiasm are contagious and uplifting.
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to see that open discussion, rights of the minority and will of the majority are ideals that I strive to implement. It will be my pleasure to continue as the vice speaker.
Daron W. Gersch, MD, FAAFP, is a family physician in Avon, Minnesota. Dr. Gersch is currently the vice speaker for the AAFP Congress of Delegates and a member of the Minnesota AFP. He was born and raised in Saint James, Minnesota, and went to college at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He attended the University of Minnesota medical school and did his family medicine residency at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, family medicine residency program. Out of residency he went to the Albany-area hospital and medical center in Central Minnesota to start his rural practice. He provided full-spectrum primary care at that facility for 25 years. During that time, Dr. Gersch taught and mentored multiple college students, medical students, residents, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. When the Albany-area hospital closed, he decided to take the opportunity to try something different. He now works full-time seeing patients and being the ER medical director at the Long Prairie, Melrose, and Sauk Centre Hospitals in central Minnesota. He also currently serves as the medical director at the nursing homes in Albany and Long Prairie, Minnesota. He is on the Protect Project for the CDC and is a stakeholder reviewer for PCORI.
He has previously served as the mayor of Albany, Minnesota, and served eight years on the rural health advisory committee for the Minnesota Department of Health. He also served as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Minnesota school of medicine. He was on the medical review panel for familydoctor.org.
He has been a Cub Scout and Boy Scout adult leader for 18 years. He was a member of the Minnesota Army Guard, serving as a medical platoon leader at a mechanized infantry company and a physician in a battalion field hospital. He obtained the rank of captain and was honorably discharged.
He has been married to his wife Patti for 33 years and has three amazing children: Nick, 31; Molly, 28; and Anthony, 24. Molly is married to Mitchell and Nick is married to Annie.
Along with family time, he enjoys running and has finished 13 marathons. He also enjoys reading, astronomy, fishing and playing his guitar.