American Academy of Family Physicians Names 2019-2020 Board of Directors

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, Sept. 25 -- The American Academy of Family Physicians issued the following news release:

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.

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Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents 134,600 physicians and medical students nationwide, and it is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Family physicians conduct approximately one in five of the total medical office visits in the United States per year - more than any other specialty. Family physicians provide comprehensive, evidence-based, and cost-effective care dedicated to improving the health of patients, families and communities. Family medicine's cornerstone is an ongoing and personal patient-physician relationship where the family physician serves as the hub of each patient's integrated care team. More Americans depend on family physicians than on any other medical specialty.