AAFP Delegates Elect New Leaders for 2023-24

She will routinely participate in the “cluster meeting” of AAFP commissions and may chair one of the Academy’s task forces or other Board-appointed work groups. She may be called on to represent the Academy in communicating with individual members and external groups, including lawmakers.

New President

Steven Furr, M.D., FAAFP, a rural practice owner from Jackson, Ala., who was voted president-elect last year during COD in Washington, D.C., was installed as Academy president. Furr, who previously has served as president of the Alabama AFP, the Medical Association of the State of Alabama and the Alabama Medical Directors Association, will serve as official spokesperson and public face of the AAFP in 2023-24.

Furr recently testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding Medicare reform. As president, he will have more opportunities to represent the AAFP in testimony before legislative bodies and will lead the Academy’s delegation in meetings with other organizations and government officials. The president is a member of the AAFP Board and its executive committee and is an ex-officio member of all standing commissions and committees.

New Board Chair

Tochi Iroku-Malize, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FAAFP, of Long Island, N.Y., completed her term as president and assumed the role of AAFP Board chair.

Iroku-Malize, an academic family physician who oversees four residency programs with nearly 100 residents, will preside over all meetings of the Board and its executive committee. The Board chair is a non-voting member of all standing commissions and committees. She will confer with the Academy’s executive staff weekly and provide direction and guidance related to implementing Board actions and on day-to-day issues that arise between meetings of the Board and the executive committee. She also will review official statements, such as congressional testimony and may represent the Academy before legislative bodies and in meetings with government officials.

Other Election Results

Also elected or chosen by acclamation for leadership positions at the 2023 Congress of Delegates, with a brief description of duties, were:

• Speaker of the Congress — Russell Kohl, M.D., FAAFP, of Stilwell, Kan., was re-elected to a one-year term as speaker. The speaker is a member of the Board and its executive committee and presides over the Congress of Delegates.
  
  Kohl is chief medical officer and chief operating officer of a Medicare quality improvement organization that served four states and two U.S. territories. He also cares for patients at Whiteman Air Force Base as a Senior Flight Surgeon and State Air Surgeon for the Missouri Air National Guard.
  
  Kohl chairs the Board’s award subcommittee and may also serve as a chair or member of one of the Academy’s task forces or other Board-appointed work groups. He also will appoint all reference and special committees of the COD, is empowered to grant the privilege of the floor of the COD and votes only in the case of a tie that doesn’t involve candidates for election.
  
  
• Vice Speaker — Daron Gersch, M.D., FAAFP, of Avon, Minn., was re-elected to a one-year term as vice speaker.
  
  Gersch, an emergency room physician, is ER medical and trauma director for his hospital and also is medical director for a nursing home. As vice speaker, he is a member of the Board and presides over meetings of the COD in the absence of the speaker or when designated by the speaker. The vice speaker serves as chair of the Resolution and Policy Review Subcommittee of the Board and assists the speaker in planning and conducting the COD.
  
  If the office of speaker is vacated, the vice speaker fills the unexpired term. As vice speaker, Gersch may serve as a member of one of the Academy’s task forces or other special work groups appointed by the Board.
  
  
• Directors — Sarah Sams, M.D., FAAFP, of Columbus, Ohio; Brent Smith, M.D., M.Sc, M.L.S., FAAFP, of Cleveland, Miss.; and Jeffrey Zavala, M.D., FAAFP, of Billings, Mont., were elected to three-year terms.
  
  The Board includes nine directors elected in groups of three, or as otherwise needed, on a rotating basis. Directors sit as members of various Board subcommittees. One director is elected each year to serve as the at-large member of the Board’s executive committee. Between meetings of the COD, the Board oversees and administers the work of the Academy and development of its policies, appointing commissions, committees and other work groups necessary to assist it in fulfilling these responsibilities.
  
  Sams, past president of the Ohio AFP, is associate program director and full-time faculty member at Grant Family Medicine Residency in Columbus, Ohio.
  
  Smith is an employed outpatient family physician and faculty for the Mississippi Delta Family Medicine Residency who previously served as resident member of the AAFP Board.
  
  Zavala is chief medical officer of his medical group and past president of the Montana AFP.
  
  
• New physician Board member — Matthew Adkins, D.O., of Columbus, Ohio, is faculty at the Grant Family Medicine Residency. He was elected by his peers earlier this year during the National Conference of Constituency and confirmed by acclamation during the COD.

• Resident Board member — Janet Nwaukoni, D.O., of Lake Forest, Ill., is a third-year resident at Northwestern’s Lake Forest program and also served as a resident delegate in the COD this year.

• Student Board member — Taree Chadwick, of Reno, Nevada, is a fourth-year student at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, who previously served as national coordinator of the Family Medicine Interest Group Network.
  
  Nwaukoni and Chadwick were elected by their peers this summer by the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents and the National Congress of Student Members and confirmed by acclamation during the COD.
  
  The new physician, resident and student members are all voting members of the Board who serve one-year terms. Each serves as liaison to one of the Academy’s standing commissions.

AAFP policies are determined by its members, and the Academy offers a multitude of elected and appointed leadership positions for students, residents and active members. Check out the opportunities and processes to get involved.

The AAFP Foundation offers leadership development for students and residents through its year-long Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute, which kicks off each summer in Kansas City during the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students.

The Academy offers leadership development for current and aspiring leaders during the Annual Chapter Leader Forum, which is scheduled for April 18-20 in Kansas City, Mo., and coincides with the National Conference of Constituency Leaders, which is a leadership development event for underrepresented constituencies, including: women, minorities, new physicians, international medical graduates, and LGBTQ+ physicians.