AAFP Names 2021-2022 Board of Directors

LEAWOOD, Kan., Sept. 28, 2021 /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 133,500 physicians and medical students.

• Sterling N. Ransone, Jr., MD, FAAFP is president. He 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, Virginia.
• Ada D. Stewart, MD, FAAFP, is board chair. 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 is a preceptor for medical residents, medical students and nurse practitioners. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Stewart enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and has achieved the rank of Colonel.
• Russell W. Kohl, MD, FAAFP, is 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, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 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.
• Daron W. Gersch, MD, FAAFP, is vice speaker of the Congress of Delegates. He is a family physician with CentraCare hospital in Long Prairie, Minnesota. Gersch works full-time as the ER medical and trauma director \ at CentraCare - Long Prairie hospital. He also currently serves as the medical director at Mother of Mercy nursing home in Albany, Minnesota. He is on the Protect Initiative for the CDC and serves on the medical review panel for familydoctor.org. 
• R. Shawn Martin, is executive vice president and chief executive officer of the AAFP. Martin 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.
• Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, president-elect.  She 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 no 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 providing 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.
• Jennifer. L. Brull, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. She is a family physician in Plainville, Kansas. Brull has practiced family medicine in rural Kansas for 19 years. She is CEO and owner of Prairie Star Family Practice in Plainville. In addition, she serves as regional medical director for five accountable care organizations of independent primary care practices located in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Colorado and Utah. She serves the Rooks County Health Center Surgical Clinics as medical director and operations manager, and formerly served 12 years as health officer for the Rooks County Health Department. She is also the Kansas Medical Director for VaxCare.
• Mary F. Campagnolo, MD, MBA, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. She is a family physician in Bordentown, New Jersey. Campagnolo has practiced family medicine for 35 years, currently at Virtua-Primary Care of Mansfield, part of Virtua Medical Group. She also serves Virtua Health, a 5-hospital health system in southern New Jersey, as medical director and designated institutional official for graduate medical education. She oversees the accreditation and operations of five Virtua-sponsored residencies, as well as the training for more than 400 students, resident physicians and fellows from numerous affiliated regional academic medical centers each year.
• Todd D. Shaffer, MD, MBA, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. He is a family physician in Kansas City, Missouri. Shaffer has practiced family medicine for 29 years. Since 1995, he has served the University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine as assistant professor, associate professor, and then professor of family medicine. He also served as family medicine residency program director from 2002 to 2017. Shaffer practices the full scope of family medicine through University Physicians Associates at Truman Medical Centers and the Lakewood Medical Pavilion.
• Gail Guerrero-Tucker, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors.
  She is affiliated with Gila Valley Clinic in Safford, Arizona, as well as Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center in Safford. She graduated from University of Arizona College of Medicine in 2002. She spent 20 years working in the banking industry before attending medical school in 1997. 
• Teresa L. Lovins, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. She is a physician owner at Lovin My Health DPC in Columbus, Indiana—her own hometown direct primary care practice—which opened during the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously worked in a variety of practice settings and helped to get both an employer-based clinic and a group practice off the ground. D
• Sarah C. Nosal, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. She is Vice President for Innovation & Optimization and Chief Medical Information Officer at The Institute for Family Health, an FQHC network with 30-plus Mid-Hudson, Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn locations. She secured financial support for IT infrastructure by enrolling clinicians achieving meaningful use across the system. As CMIO, she helped her institution become a regional leader in data sharing and ensuring equitable information access.
• Karen Smith, MD, FAAFP, is a member of the board of directors. She established her own independent private practice in 2003 in Raeford, North Carolina. Smith also serves as clinical instructor at the Department of Family Medicine & Community health at Duke University, adjunct instructor at the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and adjunct instructor in the Division of Health Sciences at East Carolina University.
• Samuel E. Mathis, MD, FAAFP, is the new physician member of the board of directors. He serves as assistant professor at the School of Medicine and Family Medicine Residency Program in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He is also the medical director at the UTMB Employee Health Services.
• Amanda Stisher, MD, is the resident member of the board of directors. She is a third-year family medicine resident at the Family Medicine Residency Program at University of Alabama at Birmingham in Huntsville. A member of the AAFP since 2015, Stisher currently serves as the resident chair of National Conference. She is the resident member of the Subcommittee on Student and Resident Issues and the Subcommittee on National Conference Planning, both on the Commission on Education. 
• Amy Hoffman is the student member of the board of directors. She is a fourth-year medical student at the Penn State College of Medicine-University Park Campus, State College, Pennsylvania. At Penn State, Hoffman volunteers at the free, student-run clinic, LionCare, caring for underserved residents of rural central Pennsylvania. As a Global Health Scholar, she has traveled to Ghana to learn about health care systems and policy. She is currently implementing a culinary medicine curriculum to teach others about safe, economical, and culturally appropriate meal preparation to promote health.

About the American Academy of Family Physicians
Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents 133,500 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the largest 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