Daron W. Gersch, MD, FAAFP

Daron W. Gersch, MD, FAAFP, a family physician with CentraCare hospital in Long Prairie, Minnesota, is the vice speaker of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The AAFP represents 130,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. As AAFP vice speaker, Gersch advocates on behalf of family physicians and patients to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. 

Gersch is a member of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians. He was born and raised in Saint James, Minnesota, and earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and completed his family medicine residency at the Cedar Rapids Family Medicine Residency Program in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

After 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, Daron taught and mentored multiple college students, medical students, residents, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. 

He now works full-time as the ER medical and trauma director and provides ER care at CentraCare - Long Prairie, Melrose, and Sauk Centre hospitals. He was recently appointed to the Central Minnesota Trauma Committee. He also currently serves as the medical director at the nursing homes in Albany and Long Prairie, Minnesota. He was most recently on the PROTECT Initiative for the CDC and served on the medical review panel for familydoctor.org.   

Previously, he was mayor of Albany, Minnesota, and served eight years on the Rural Health Advisory Committee for the Minnesota Department of Health. Currently he serves as an adjunct associate professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and has been a Cub Scout and Boy Scout adult leader for 18 years. 

Gersch was a member of the Minnesota Army National Guard, serving as a medical platoon leader at a mechanized infantry company and a physician in a battalion hospital. He obtained the rank of captain and was honorably discharged.