CLEVELAND — Inside a room within the stately Hay-McKinney Mansion inside the Cleveland History Center , they're setting up a new exhibit honoring 200 years of one of the oldest medical organizations in the country.

To encompass two centuries of history of the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland & Northern Ohio is nearly an impossible task, and the impact is not lost on the Academy's new president, Dr. Marie Schaefer .

"Certainly walking in here today and realizing I'm following in the footsteps of all these great physician leaders that came before me is really impactful," Schaefer said. "It's a big and important position, and I'm excited to continue to build on what the Academy has done."

Schaefer is the fifth woman to lead one of the last remaining physician-centered organizations of its kind (t's estimated perhaps a dozen are left). AMCNO represents about 6,700 physicians as the region's professional medical association as a nonprofit, 501(c6) professional organization for Northern Ohio's medical community.

The mission of the AMCNO is to support physicians in being strong advocates for all patients and promote the practice of the highest quality of medicine.

"We're so busy in our day-to-day practices — whether we're at a big hospital or a private practice — that we we often forget, you know, why we went into medicine, Schaefer admitted. "I think the Academy of Medicine is a way to step back and to advocate for the people we take care of in the community that we take care of."

That's what the Academy's done for the last 200 years , since Sabin Oral Sundays to fight polio or the Swine Flu epidemic. Academy doctors even testified before the Ohio General Assembly about the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.

Rallying doctors to help their own communities for the betterment of public health is at the Academy's core, and the organization also gets doctors together to share ideas.

"Medicine is so siloed nowadays," Schaefer said. "Whether you're working in a private practice or a big group or you're in the specialty or the super subspecialty, the Academy allows you to take all those bright ideas from all of the individuals and come together with what is best for us as a community, as a whole."

As an example, one of her projects during her tenure is a gun safety coalition.