AAFP Names 2018-2019 Board of Directors

NEW ORLEANS,  /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 U.S. health care system. The AAFP represents 131,400 physicians and medical students.

• John S. Cullen, MD, FAAFP, is president. 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 the past 25 years. Cullen works in a small group practice and is director of emergency medical services at Providence Valdez Medical Center. 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 in Hanover, New Hampshire. 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.
• Michael L. Munger, MD, FAAFP, is board chair. Munger has been a practicing family physician in the Kansas City metropolitan area for 32 years. He is currently in practice at Saint Luke's Physicians Group in Overland Park, Kansas, where he also serves as vice president of medical affairs for primary care. The group has 115 physician members at 16 different sites, 11 of which are participants in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus Initiative. Through such initiatives, Munger and his team continue to be leaders in strengthening primary care to promote better health and reduce overall health care costs. He formerly served as medical director for The Sweet Life at Grand Court assisted living facility, also in Overland Park.
• Gary L. LeRoy, MD, FAAFP, is president-elect. LeRoy is a family physician in Dayton, Ohio. He is the associate dean for student affairs and admissions at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, where 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, the American Red Cross and Saint Vincent's Homeless Shelter.
• 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 and supervises residents part-time as a clinical associate professor of family medicine with the University of Oklahoma Rural Residency program in Bartlesville. He previously served as chief medical officer of TransforMED, ran a full-scope solo practice in rural Oklahoma, and served in the United States Air Force as a senior flight surgeon.
• 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.
• Robert F. Raspa, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Raspa is a retired captain in the U.S. Navy and has been a practicing family physician and faculty member with St. Vincent's Family Medicine Center since 2003. He is also a clinical associate professor at Nova Southeastern School of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, and clinical assistant professor at both the Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee and University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. Raspa continues to provide inpatient, maternity, pediatric and outpatient care to a full panel of patients.
• Leondard D. Reeves, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Reeves is a family physician and associate dean of the Northwest Clinical Campus of the Medical College of Georgia in Rome. Reeves is also a family physician at the Free Clinic of Rome, where he serves as board president. Previously, Reeves served as assistant director of the Floyd Family Medicine Residency and clinic director of the residency offices at Floyd Medical Center in Rome.
• Ada D. Stewart, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve her term on the board of directors. Stewart is a family physician with the Eau Claire Cooperative Health Centers in Columbia, South Carolina, where she has practiced since 2012. She currently serves as lead provider and HIV specialist. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Stewart enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and was recently promoted to the rank of Colonel. She is a preceptor for medical residents, medical students and nurse practitioners.
• 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 medicine for more than 25 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, a federally qualified health center affiliated with the Wayne County Health Department. He also serves as 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. Swegler is the family physician owner of Beacon Family Health Care in Austin, Texas. She also serves as a preceptor for medical students through the Texas Family Medicine Preceptorship Program. Swegler served on the Physician Advisory Committee for the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health.
• James A. Ellzy, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Ellzy is a family physician in Washington, D.C., where he also serves as the deputy program executive officer at Defense Healthcare Management Systems. In addition, Ellzy serves as associate faculty at the Fort Belvoir Family Medicine Residency, where he teaches and maintains a full-scope clinical practice including outpatient care, inpatient care and obstetrics.
• Dennis L. Gingrich, MD, FAAFP, is a member of 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.
• Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, is a family physician in Long Island, New York. Iroku-Malize 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.
• LaTasha Seliby Perkins, MD, is the new physician member of the board of directors. Perkins is a family physician in Washington, D.C. She 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.
• Michelle Byrne, MD, MPH, is the resident member of the board of directors. Byrne 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. A member of the AAFP since 2016, Byrne currently serves on the AAFP Commission on Membership and Member Services.
• Chandler Stisher is the student member of the board of directors. Stisher is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. He 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. Stisher is currently the student member to the AAFP Commission on Education, and serves as national coordinator for the AAFP Family Medicine Interest Group Network.

 About the American Academy of Family Physicians
Founded in 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians represents 131,400 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.

To learn more about the AAFP and family medicine, visit www.aafp.org/media. Follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. For information about health care, health conditions and wellness, visit the AAFP's award-winning consumer website, www.familydoctor.org.

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SOURCE American Academy of Family Physicians