New AAFP President Reflects on Power of Mentorship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 2, 2024 

 Media Contact: 
Julie Hirschhorn
jhirschhorn@aafp.org  

LEAWOOD, KS — Blair Wendlandt, MD, first met Jen Brull, MD, FAAFP, over 15 years ago, when Wendlandt was participating in a rural medicine elective in Plainville, Kansas. She recently found the journal she kept during that first summer working with Brull — a season of new experiences and knowledge, from rounds to dinners. Today, Wendlandt is a family physician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Brull is the newly installed president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).

“I can say without hesitation that Jen has had more influence on my practice and teaching styles than any other individual I encountered during the long course of my medical school, residency and fellowship training,” Wendlandt said. “And that, I think, is the greatest testament to Jen as a mentor — what she teaches transcends specialty, geography and time.”

In a video introducing Brull to the AAFP membership, Brull spoke about the impact of mentorship and how family physicians in the U.S. are powerful change agents — working to improve our health care system and increase access to care.  

Mentors and mentees throughout Brull’s expansive career in family medicine agree.

“Mentorship is a two-way, ongoing dialogue: a support system built on respect and radical constructive candor,” said Emily Maxson, MD, clinical operating partner at Despierta VC. 

“I found Jen to be the best of partners in our mutual mentorship journey — ready to lean into the discomfort of a challenge and primed to leverage the investment to help others in turn.” 

Lilly Varner, MD, a family physician in Lenexa, Kansas, recalled working with Brull during her rural rotation at Brull’s clinic in Plainville during her last year of medical school. 

“She is a wonderful teacher and has a knack for offering structure and guidance while also encouraging initiative and independence. I learned more during those four weeks with her than I had during any other rotation. Learning to follow her example taught me to keep asking, ‘What’s next?’” said Varner. “She has been a steadfast advocate not only for her patients, but also for me. It was with her advice that I adjusted my residency application strategies, which helped me match in a program that I may have missed out on otherwise. I owe much to her and her encouragement.”

Brull's relationships with colleagues such as Varner, Wendlandt and Maxson show the pivotal role family physicians play in shaping primary care's future. The Fort Collins, Colorado, family physician trusted by the community she served is also an educator and a true mentor, dedicated to fostering leadership skills and forging lifelong connections. 

“Mentorship has been a cornerstone of my family medicine career. It has provided me with the resources I needed to thrive in my early career and served as a connection to the next generation of family physicians,” Brull said. “We’re not just physicians — we’re teachers, we’re coaches, we bridge gaps and, most important, we’re part of the solution to ensuring more students and residents choose to practice and remain in family medicine. I couldn’t be more honored to play a role in helping physicians who are looking to sharpen and grow their leadership skills — and that’s what the AAFP does. We meet physicians where they are and give them the tools to succeed.”

Brull practiced family medicine in rural Plainville, 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 help them succeed in value-based care. Throughout her career, Brull’s desire to mentor and foster future family medicine leaders has been unwavering. Brull has mentored several students and trainees, including physicians who eventually joined her former practice in rural Kansas. 

“So many of the things that remain a routine part of my practice I first learned from Jen — how to deliver bad news to a patient and their family in a manner that is both direct and compassionate; how to talk about hospice; how to remain thorough and focused while fielding that middle-of-the-night phone call when all you really want to do is get back into bed; how to pause and deliver an expertly timed ‘does that make sense’ when explaining something complicated to a patient; and how to provide just the right balance of supervision and autonomy to trainees, giving them the chance to learn and grow while also making sure that the patient doesn’t get hurt in the process,” Wendlandt said. 

For Maxson, mentoring relationships promise sounding boards and partners to meet the challenges of an evolving health care environment.

“Mentorship is critical for the advancement and sustainability of family physicians, who are constantly asked to respond to changes in policy and clinical standards while maintaining the most intimidating scope of practice in medicine,” Maxson said. “When the path is difficult, and at times, lonely, thoughtful mentorship changes the game and drastically improves the chance of success. I am so delighted that Jen will have the chance to serve and partner with all our country’s family physicians as their AAFP president. She will never stop learning to be better or helping others to do the same, for the benefit of all family doctors and their patients.” 

Brull has undoubtedly helped shape the careers of many family physicians, but she has also been shaped by mentors, including past AAFP president Glen Stream, MD, MBI, FAAFP.

 “Mentorship is about encouragement and useful feedback. It’s part of the family physician’s psyche to have an excessive amount of humility,” Stream said. “Too often, family physicians don’t feel like they have the capability to step up into leadership positions. So, when you see someone who demonstrates strong leadership skills, it’s important for us to encourage them.”

Stream also called attention to AAFP programs and resources that help prepare younger physicians for leadership roles. Among these: the AAFP Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Institute and the Academy’s FUTURE conference, where attendees see leadership in action, become inspired and form lasting friendships. 

“To see someone who has identified you as a mentor or role model, as Jen has done to me for many years, rise in a leadership position like she has, is very rewarding,” Stream said.  

Decades of serving a community well, leading in value-based care and investing in others are on the long list of Brull’s accomplishments. As she enters her year as AAFP president, she takes with her the lessons being both mentor and mentee.

“Mentorship is one of the best tools physicians have to make connections and ensure family physicians have the resources and support they need to thrive in medicine,” Brull said. “With mentorship comes invaluable lessons on both sides — from helping students and residents advocate on behalf of patients and communities we serve to encouraging people to take leadership roles in medicine. I am both honored and eager to be able to elevate the positive assets mentorship brings to the family physician community, and I am thrilled to be able to take those lessons and share them with our country’s family physicians.” 

That journal Wednlandt kept from the time she first met Brull catalogs the joys and challenges of those days. It captures her first impressions of Brull and the lessons she learned. But it’s one entry from July 17, 2008, when she was a second-year medical student, that highlights the impact a mentor can have on a new physician seeking inspiration:

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