AAFP Names 2019-2020 Board of Directors

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Family Physicians held elections for its board of directors this week at its annual Congress of Delegates, the organization's governing body. Members of the board of directors advocate on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the US health care system. The AAFP represents 134,600 physicians and medical students.

    --  Gary L. LeRoy, MD, FAAFP, is president. LeRoy is a family physician in
        Dayton, Ohio, where he is the associate dean for student affairs and
        admission at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. He is
        also an associate professor of family medicine. A lifelong Daytonian and
        public servant, LeRoy cares for the underserved as a staff physician at
        the East Dayton Health Clinic. He was the clinic's medical director from
        1994 to 2008 and helped secure funding to remodel and expand the center
        and its services. LeRoy serves the Dayton community through Reach Out of
        Montgomery County, Dayton Public Schools and Saint Vincent's Homeless
        Shelter.
    --  John S. Cullen, MD, FAAFP, is board chair. Cullen is a family physician
        in Valdez, Alaska. He has practiced the full scope of family medicine in
        a rural community of 4,000 people for more than 25 years. Cullen works
        in an independent small group practice and is director of emergency
        medical services at Providence Valdez Medical Center where he also
        provides maternity and inpatient care. He has been actively involved in
        residency and medical student teaching for more than 20 years, providing
        comprehensive training in rural health care. He is an associate clinical
        professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. From
        2007 to 2013, Cullen served on the Alaska State Medical Board. During
        this time, he also served on the National Advisory Committee on Rural
        Health and Human Services for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
        Services.
    --  Ada D. Stewart, MD, FAAFP, is president-elect. Stewart is a family
        physician with Cooperative Health, formerly Eau Claire Cooperative
        Health Centers, in Columbia, South Carolina, where she has practiced
        since 2012. She currently serves as lead provider and HIV specialist.
        From 2003 to 2012, Stewart served as chief medical officer and HIV
        specialist at the Richland Community Health Care Association in Eastover
        and Columbia, South Carolina. She began her career as a National Health
        Service Corps scholar, caring for underserved patients in rural South
        Carolina. She continues to work with underserved communities in both
        rural and urban settings. She is a preceptor for medical residents,
        medical students and nurse practitioners. In the aftermath of Sept. 11,
        2001, Stewart enlisted in the US Army Reserves and has achieved the rank
        of Colonel.
    --  Alan I. Schwartzstein, MD, FAAFP, is speaker of the AAFP Congress of
        Delegates. Schwartzstein is a family physician at SSM/Health Dean
        Medical Group in South Central Wisconsin, where he has practiced for the
        past 30 years. He has more than 35 years of clinical experience and
        background in leadership, community service, public health, advocacy and
        education. He also serves as a clinical assistant professor at the
        University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison,
        where he teaches both students and residents.
    --  Russell W. Kohl, MD, FAAFP, is vice speaker of the AAFP Congress of
        Delegates. Kohl is a family physician living in Stilwell, Kansas, and
        serves as chief medical officer with TMF Health Quality Institute, a
        Medicare quality improvement organization serving Oklahoma, Arkansas,
        Missouri, Texas and Puerto Rico. He also cares for patients at Whiteman
        Air Force Base as Senior Flight Surgeon and Commander with the 131st
        Medical Group. He previously served as chief medical officer of
        TransforMED, ran a full-scope solo practice in rural Oklahoma, and
        served as faculty at the University of Oklahoma School of Community
        Medicine.
    --  Douglas E. Henley, MD, FAAFP, is executive vice president and chief
        executive officer of the AAFP. Henley works with the AAFP Board of
        Directors on the mission, strategy and vision for the AAFP, and provides
        representation to other organizations, including those in the medical,
        public and private sectors. He also serves on the board of directors of
        the AAFP Foundation, the charitable arm of the AAFP.
    --  Sterling N. Ransone, Jr., MD, FAAFP continues to serve his term on the
        board of directors. Ransone is a third-generation family physician in
        Deltaville, Virginia, and has practiced rural medicine for more than 20
        years. He currently serves as physician practice director at Riverside
        Fishing Bay Family Practice. He also serves as an assistant clinical
        professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia
        Commonwealth University in Richmond.
    --  Windel A. Stracener, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board
        of directors. Stracener is a family physician in Richmond, Indiana,
        where he cares for patients of all ages at the Wayne County Community
        Health Center in Richmond, a federally qualified health center
        affiliated with the Wayne County Health Department. In addition, he is
        the student health physician at Earlham College and medical director of
        the Acute Rehabilitation Unit for Reid Health Center, both in Richmond.
    --  Erica W. Swegler, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on the board of
        directors. Throughout her medical career, Swegler has provided the full
        spectrum of care to patients of all ages. She currently owns Beacon
        Family Health Care in Austin. In addition, she serves as a preceptor for
        medical students through the Texas Family Medicine Preceptorship
        Program, a program that matches Texas medical students with an
        experienced and skilled family physician for a two-to-four-week period
        to help them gain real life experience in a community setting.
    --  James A. Ellzy, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of
        directors. Ellzy is a family physician in Washington, DC, where he
        currently serves as the MHS GENESIS Clinical Functional Champion at the
        Defense Health Agency. In this role, he advises and assists Defense
        Health Agency leadership on all matters pertaining to the Department of
        Defense's new electronic health record (MHS GENESIS) as it applies to
        clinical policy and procedures. These duties include collaborating with
        the Veterans Health Administration. In addition, Ellzy serves as
        associate faculty at the Fort Belvoir Family Medicine Residency, where
        he teaches and maintains clinical practice.
    --  Dennis L. Gingrich, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board
        of directors. Gingrich is a family physician in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
        He currently practices family medicine and teaches residents and
        students as a professor in both the Department of Family and Community
        Medicine and the Department of Humanities at Penn State College of
        Medicine in Hershey. He has served more than 20 years on the medical
        school admissions committee and has spent more than 25 years organizing
        premedical programming and serving as an advisor to the college's Family
        Medicine Interest Group. Prior to his academic practice, he was in
        community practice as a partner in the Permanente Medical Group in Los
        Angeles.
    --  Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on
        the board of directors. Iroku-Malize is a family physician in Long
        Island, New York. She serves as founding chair and professor of family
        medicine for the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at
        Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, New York, and chair of family medicine
        for Northwell Health. She was previously the director of the family
        medicine residency program at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York.
        She was active in the Association of Family Medicine Residency
        Directors, which presented the Silver Program Director Recognition Award
        to her in 2015.
    --  Andrew J.P. Carroll, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors.
        Carroll is a family physician in Chandler, Arizona. He is the founder,
        owner and medical director of Atembis LLC, an integrated
        medical-behavioral family medicine practice in Chandler. In addition to
        traditional payer patients, he cares for uninsured patients, those
        without a private or employer health plan, and those who are not
        eligible for federal or state insurance benefits by providing
        cost-conscientious care and arranging for diagnostic studies to be done
        at or near cost. Carroll's practice combines full scope family medical
        care as well as full breadth behavioral care through a team-based
        approach. In addition, Carroll serves as chief medical officer of
        accountable care services for Change Healthcare.
    --  Steven P. Furr, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Furr
        is a family physician in Jackson, Alabama. He is the co-founder of
        Family Medical Clinic of Jackson, which also supports a small rural
        hospital and a local nursing home. Furr has cared for patients for more
        than 35 years, including obstetric care for more than 25 years. He is a
        certified medical director as well as a certified medical examiner. Furr
        is an adjunct assistant professor with the Department of Family Medicine
        at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. He
        also serves as adjunct assistant professor with the Department of
        Family, Internal and Rural Medicine at the University of Alabama School
        of Medicine, College of Community Health Sciences in Tuscaloosa.
    --  Margot L. Savoy, MD, MPH, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors.
        Savoy is a family physician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is
        associate professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community
        Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and
        chief quality officer for Temple Faculty Physicians, Inc., in
        Philadelphia. She is also an attending physician at Temple University
        Hospital and Christiana Care Health System, where she previously served
        as medical director of family medicine. She also served as medical
        director for the Delaware Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services and
        as attending physician at the Pennsylvania Department of Health's STD
        clinic.
    --  Brent K. Sugimoto, MD, MPH, FAAFP, is the new physician member of the
        board of directors. Sugimoto is a family physician and founder and chief
        medical officer at Decoded Health, Inc., in Oakland, California. He was
        elected to a one-year term by the new physician constituency during the
        AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders and was confirmed by
        the AAFP's governing body, the Congress of Delegates.
    --  Kelly Thibert, DO, MPH, is the resident member of the board of
        directors. Thibert was elected to a one-year term by the National
        Congress of Family Medicine Residents and was confirmed by the governing
        body of the AAFP, the Congress of Delegates. Since 2017, she has been a
        resident officer of the AAFP Reproductive Health Member Interest Group.
        She was appointed as the resident member of the AAFP Tobacco Prevention
        and Control Committee in 2018 and became a member of the AAFP Commission
        on Membership and Member Services in 2019.
    --  Margaret Jean Miller is the student member of the board of directors.
        Miller is a fourth-year medical student at East Tennessee State
        University Quillen College of Medicine and a Master of Public Health
        student at East Tennessee State University College of Public Health in
        Johnson City, Tennessee. She was elected to a one-year term by the
        National Conference of Medical Students and was confirmed by the
        governing body of the AAFP, the Congress of Delegates. In 2018, she
        served as the student chair at the AAFP National Conference of Family
        Medicine Residents and Medical Students. From 2017 to 2018, she was also
        a student representative to the AAFP Commission on Membership and Member
        Services.

About the American Academy of Family Physicians

Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents 134,600 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Family physicians conduct approximately one in five office visits--that's 192 million visits annually or 48 percent more than the next most visited medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide more care for America's underserved and rural populations than any other medical specialty. Family medicine's cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.

To learn more about the specialty of family medicine, the AAFP's positions on issues and clinical care, and for downloadable multi-media highlighting family medicine, visit www.aafp.org/media. For information about health care, health conditions and wellness, please visit the AAFP's award-winning consumer website, www.familydoctor.org.

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SOURCE American Academy of Family Physicians