IMPACT Team
Laura Zimmermann, MD, MS, FACP
Chief Medical Officer, Co-Founder
Laura J. Zimmermann, MD, DipABLM, MS, FACP is a primary care internist and lifestyle medicine physician. She is an associate professor and the Division Chief of General Internal Medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Dr. Zimmermann has served as the Medical Director of the Rush University Prevention Center, building a multidisciplinary lifestyle medicine clinic that integrates medical and behavioral care to prevent and manage cardiometabolic illness. Dr. Zimmermann also served as the RUMG Director of Clinical Preventive Medicine, leading interdepartmental quality improvement initiatives in hypertension control, cancer screening, and tobacco cessation. She has presented this work in national venues, including invited talks and webinars for the National Minority Quality Forum and the American Medical Association. Additionally, Dr. Zimmermann holds leadership roles in clinical trials targeting cardiometabolic risk, including the multisite behavioral trial Enhanced Lifestyles for Metabolic Syndrome and the NIH-funded community based participatory research trial Heart2Heart.
Prior to joining Rush, Dr. Zimmermann was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University. She transitioned into this role after completing medical school, residency, and a postdoctoral health services research fellowship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. While at Northwestern, Dr. Zimmermann’s research focused on diabetes prevention, community health, and health equity. She concurrently built a large primary care panel at Erie Family Health Center, a federally-qualified health center located on Chicago’s near-west side.
Dr. Zimmermann founded the Physician Mommies Chicago Facebook group, which includes over 3,200 physician mothers from the Chicagoland area.
She is also co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team (IMPACT), an organization leveraging social and other media to fight misinformation and advocate for science-based policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.