Meet the HCMA President
Kenneth M. Louis, M.D.
2010-2011 HCMA President

All of Dr. Kenneth Louis’ grandparents were born and raised in Albania and fled to the United States during The Depression due to the communist takeover in Albania.  Most people are not aware that Louis is not the original family name, but was adopted by his grandfather after seeing the name on a store front at Ellis Island.

Dr. Louis was born at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.  After an internship in general surgery at Johns Hopkins and residency at the New York Neurological Institute, Dr. Louis moved to Tampa in 1983 where he became board certified in Neurological Surgery and joined HCMA past president, Dr. Gene Balis, in a vibrant and challenging practice in the University area. 

During the summer break of 1972, Dr. Louis met Cathy.  They were married in July 1976 and have three children:  Jennifer, a chief design director at CNN in Atlanta; Michael, an ALS researcher at the University of South Florida; and  Daniel, currently a music education major in Gainesville, where he is studying keyboards as well as jazz banjo.

Besides being a practicing neurosurgeon, Dr. Louis is a man of many passions and talents and has pursued various hobbies.  Dr. Louis has a third-degree black belt in To Shin Do, which is a martial art of the ninja.  He and Cathy have taken 20 years of ballroom dancing lessons and have achieved the gold level standard.  Dr. Louis enjoys performing magic and has been a member of two major magic societies for over 25 years.  He also enjoys fly-fishing, playing jazz guitar on his Benedetto, reading non-fiction, and traveling abroad. 

Dr. Louis has served on the HCMA Executive Council, on numerous HCMA committees, and as HCMA Delegate to the FMA, for several years.  He will be installed this evening as HCMA’s 108th president, succeeding Dr. Humberto Coto. 

Dr. Louis’ goal as HCMA president is to serve as the voice of physician members and to act as an informational liaison.  He would like to see all physicians work in concert in order to carry out what is best for patients and to regain much of the control over medicine that they have lost over the last several years.  He feels that physicians must lead the field in offering solutions to our ailing and failing healthcare delivery system.  “I want to see the dog wag the tail again, rather than vice versa,” states Dr. Louis. 

Dr. Louis’ dedication to the profession of medicine and his enthusiasm to lead organized medicine, at the local level, will serve the HCMA and its members well.