AAFP Names 2017-2018 Board of Directors

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Family Physicians held elections for its board of directors this week at its annual meeting. 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 129,000 physicians and medical students nationwide.

• Michael L. Munger, MD, FAAFP, is president. Munger is a family physician in Overland Park, Kansas. He is currently in full-time practice at Saint Luke's Medical Group, where he also serves as medical director for Saint Luke's South Primary Care. The group has 100 members at 14 different sites, all of which have received Level 3 medical home designation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. He formerly served as medical director for Sweet Life at Grand Court Assisted Living, also in Overland Park.
• John Meigs, Jr., MD, FAAFP, is board chair. He is a family physician in Centreville, Alabama. Meigs was in private practice in Centreville, his home town, from 1982 to 2013. In 2013, he merged with another practice to become part of Bibb Medical Associates, which is housed in a clinic at Bibb Medical Center, a 25-bed rural hospital in Centreville. He also serves as chief of staff at Bibb Medical Center.
• John S. Cullen, MD, is president-elect. 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 21 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 18 years, providing comprehensive training in rural health care. He is an associate clinical professor 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.
• Alan I. Schwartzstein, MD, FAAFP, is speaker of the Congress of Delegates, the organization's governing body. Schwartzstein is a family physician at SSM/Health Dean Medical Group in South Central Wisconsin, where he has practiced for the past 28 years. He has more than 30 years of clinical experience and a 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 Congress of Delegates, the organization's governing body. 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. 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 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.
• Carl R. Olden, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Olden is a family physician in Yakima, Washington. He is the senior family physician at Pacific Crest Family Medicine. He also serves as the medical director for quality assurance, utilization review and medical staff services for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. He is a clinical instructor in family medicine for both the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and Pacific Northwest University of the Health Sciences in Yakima. 
• John L. Bender, MD, MBA, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. Bender is a family physician in Fort Collins, Colorado, and senior partner and chief executive officer at Miramont Family Medicine. He is a past president of the Colorado Medical Society and past president and board chair of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians. He was elected chairman of the board for Physicians Accountable Care Solutions, LLC, a nationwide accountable care organization, which produced more than $10 million in Medicare savings in 2015. He is also an associate professor of family medicine with a preceptor appointment to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Aurora, and a preceptor to Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, Colorado.
• Gary L. LeRoy, MD, FAAFP, continues to serve his term on the board of directors. LeRoy is a family physician in Dayton, Ohio. He is the associate dean for student affairs and admission at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, where he is also an associate professor of family medicine. LeRoy is 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 and leads the Dayton community through Reach Out Montgomery County, Dayton Public Schools, American Red Cross and Saint Vincent's Homeless Shelter.
• 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, Ft. Lauderdale, and clinical assistant professor at both the Florida State University School of Medicine in Tallahassee and University of Florida School of Medicine in Gainesville.
• 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, Georgia. Reeves is a family physician at the Faith and Deeds Free Clinic in Rome, where he also serves as board president. Previously, Reeves served as assistant director of the Floyd Family Medicine Residency program 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 currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She is a preceptor for medical residents, medical students and nurse practitioners.
• Sterling N. Ransone, Jr., MD, FAAFP is a member of the board of directors. Ransone is a third-generation family physician in Deltaville, Virginia, who has practiced medicine for 25 years. He currently serves as physician practice director at Riverside Fishing Bay Family Practice. He also serves as a clinical assistant professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
• Windel A. Stracener, MD, FAAFP, is a member of 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 Center unit for Reid Hospital, both in Richmond.
• Erica W. Swegler, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. Swegler is a 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.
• Benjamin Simmons, III, MD, is the new physician member of the board of directors. Simmons is a family physician in Concord, North Carolina. 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 Congress of Delegates.
• Alexa Mieses, MD, MPH, is the resident member of the board of directors. Mieses was elected to a one-year term by the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents and was confirmed by the AAFP Congress of Delegates. A member of the AAFP since 2013, Mieses currently serves on the AAFP Commission on Health of the Public and Science.
• John Heafner, MPH, is the student member of the board of directors. Heafner is a fourth-year student at the St. Louis University School of Medicine. He was elected to a one-year term by the National Conference of Medical Students and was confirmed by the AAFP Congress of Delegates. Heafner is currently the student member of the Commission on Health of the Public and Science, and, in 2016, served as an AAFP Family Medicine Interest Group regional coordinator.

Editor's Note: To arrange an interview with any of the board members, please contact Megan Moriarty at (800) 274-2237, ext. 5223 or [email protected].

About the American Academy of Family Physicians
Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents 129,000 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 214 million visits annually -- 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.

SOURCE American Academy of Family Physicians

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