As the Chief Academic Officer of the Florida State University College of Medicine, Alma Littles, MD has overall responsibility for overseeing the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the four-year comprehensive curriculum leading to the M.D. degree. In 2002, Littles became founding chair of the Florida State University College of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health and in 2003 was appointed to her current position of senior associate dean for medical education and academic affairs. Her role also included leadership over the development of the College of Medicine’s first sponsored residency programs. She has been instrumental in the COM’s accreditation efforts since the creation of the school.
Dr. Littles graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine and the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH) Family Medicine Residency Program. A statewide and national leader in organized medicine, she has been involved in medical education since 1989, when she began teaching medical students and residents in her solo family practice in Quincy, Florida. She joined the faculty of the Family Medicine Residency Program at TMH in 1996, and became director in 1999. A former president of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP)and 1993 Florida Family Physician of the Year, she is also a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Medical Association, Florida Medical Association (FMA), Capital Medical Society (CMS), and Florida Alliance for Health Professions Diversity. She was the 2016-17 Chair of the TMH Board of Directors, and currently serves as Delegate to the AMA from its Academic Physicians Section. Dr. Littles was named one of the 25 Women You Need to Know in Tallahassee in 2010, and in 2014, was identified by Black Health Magazine as one of the country’s Top 15 Most Influential African American Medical Educators. She also received the 2014 Outstanding Physician of the Year Award from Capital Medical Society. She received the Director’s Award for Outstanding Faculty, and was honored with the 2019 AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Award.
Dr. Littles is a long-time patient advocate and has always recognized the importance of being a part of and giving back to the community. She has an interest in promoting student and physician wellness and addressing ways to prevent burnout. She serves on the Wellness Committees of the CMS and FAFP and chaired the FMA’s Wellness Committee in 2019-20. She also served as Vice-Chair of Florida’s Physicians Workforce Advisory Council (chaired by the State Surgeon General) for eight years and is a contributing author to the textbook, “Contemporary Challenges in Medical Education’, published in 2019. She continues to advocate for quality health care for citizens in rural communities and fully understands the need to recruit students from rural and other underserved populations to pursue the medical profession. Her mission is to inspire doctors to practice in areas where people are most in need of health care, particularly in rural areas and in the area of primary care and preventive medicine.
On a personal note, Dr. Littles serves as secretary of Shiloh P. B. Church in Quincy, FL. She is married to Mr. Gentle Littles, III and has one son, Gentle Germaine Littles.
