AAFP Announces 2024-25 New Board of Directors
and Officers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 25, 2024

PHOENIX, Ariz. — The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) today elected new members and officers to the 2024-25 Board of Directors at its annual Congress of Delegates meeting. Members of the Board of Directors advocate on behalf of family physicians, residents, medical students and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. The AAFP represents 130,000 physicians, residents and medical students.

“I am pleased to welcome our new members and officers of the Board of Directors. Each member brings unique strengths, experiences and perspectives that will be critical in helping the AAFP best serve family physicians and their patients,” said R. Shawn Martin, CEO and executive vice president of the AAFP. “Our board members embody the most important qualities of a family physician. They are strong leaders, fierce advocates for policies that will positively impact family medicine and unwavering partners in health for their patients and communities. I look forward to seeing the meaningful work they do during their time on the Board.” 

New Board of Directors Officers

• Jen Brull, MD, FAAFP, is president of the AAFP. Brull is a family physician in Fort Collins, Colorado. She practiced family medicine in rural Kansas for more than 20 years and now serves as vice president of clinical engagement for Aledade, a company that partners with independent primary care physicians to succeed in value-based care.  Brull worked for the Office of the National Coordinator and was named as a Top 25 Innovator by Modern Healthcare. She is a physician leader with a focus on performance improvement and change management. 
  
  
• Sarah C. Nosal, MD, MBA, FAAFP, is president-elect of the AAFP. She is vice president for innovation and optimization and chief medical information officer at the Institute for Family Health, a federally qualified health center network with 27-plus Mid-Hudson, Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn locations. With over two decades of family medicine practice in the South Bronx, Nosal’s focus has been on the care of marginalized communities and the uninsured. 
  
  
• Steven P. Furr, MD, FAAFP, is board chair of the AAFP, following a year as president of the Academy. Furr is a family physician in Jackson, Alabama, where he co-founded the Family Medical Clinic of Jackson, which supports a small rural hospital and a local nursing home. Furr has cared for patients for 40 years. Furr has received several honors for his work to improve health care in Alabama. He was inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame and received the 50 People of Influence Award from the South Alabama Whiddon College of Medicine, which recognizes individuals who had the most influence over the first 50 years of the College of Medicine. 
  
  
• Russell W. Kohl, MD, FAAFP was re-elected 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. Kohl works with Care Beyond the Boulevard to provide medical care to the unhoused in the Kansas City metro area and is a Colonel and Chief Flight Surgeon in the Missouri Air National Guard, where he serves as the State Air Surgeon. 
  
  
• Daron W. Gersch, MD, FAAFP, was re-elected vice-speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. He is a family physician with CentraCare in Long Prairie, Minnesota, where he also serves as the emergency room medical and trauma director at CentraCare’s critical care hospital. Gersch also serves as the medical director at Mother of Mercy nursing home in Albany, Minnesota. Throughout his career in family medicine, Gersh has taught and mentored multiple college students, medical students, residents, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. 

New Board Members

These individuals were elected to three-year terms as members of the Board of Directors.

• Shannon Dowler, MD, CPE, FAAFP, is a family physician in Marshall, North Carolina. She serves as an STI consultant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary U.S. Health. She was previously the chief medical officer of North Carolina Medicaid, a $30 billion program responsible for 3 million patients. She has also maintained a teaching faculty appointment, prioritizing precepting and mentoring students and residents. 
   
  
• Elisabeth Fowlie Mock, MD, MPH, FAAFP, is a family physician in Bangor, Maine. She serves as a clinical and policy consultant for the Maine Prescription Monitoring Program in the state’s Office of Behavioral Health. She has worked in several clinical settings, including outpatient and inpatient medicine, a public health clinic, maternity and pediatric care and urgent care. 
  
  
• Kathleen N. Mueller, MD, FAAFP serves as the system director for integrative medicine and cancer survivorship for Nuvance, a seven-hospital health system in Connecticut and southeastern New York. She is also the lead editor of Core Content Review of Family Medicine, a medical education program written by and for family physicians. Mueller speaks on health, wellness, preventive care and integrative medicine topics both regionally and nationally.
  

These individuals were elected to one-year terms: 

• Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, MPH, CPH, FAAFP, is the new member of the Board of Directors representing new physicians. She is a family physician at Emanate Health in West Covina, California, with an interest and focus on inpatient medicine, procedures, women’s health and advocacy.

• Aerial Petty, DO, is the new member of the Board of Directors representing resident physicians.  She is a fellow at the Family Medicine Center for Professionalism and Value in Health and completed her residency in at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, where she was chief resident. She served as the resident delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates and as a resident board member to the New York State AFP. 

• Mikala Cessac is the new member of the Board of Directors representing students. She is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Missouri–Columbia School of Medicine. At the state level, she is involved with the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians, serving as the medical student director on the MAFP Board of Directors. 

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