NCCL Leader Eager to Make a Difference

“NCCL is a great way to learn how to make a difference in family medicine at the national level,” said Garcia, who will serve as co-convener of the minority constituency during the April 18-20 event. “It not only teaches you how the AAFP makes decisions, but it’s also revitalizing in a way unlike any other conference I’ve attended. NCCL will teach you how to work with colleagues from around the country, who you otherwise might not meet, and not only hear their ideas but also collaborate with them to create impactful resolutions. It’s an amazing networking experience where you can form strong bonds that last for years.”

NCCL is the AAFP’s leadership development event for women, minorities, new physicians, international medical graduates, and LGBTQ+ physicians or physician allies. It coincides with the AAFP’s Annual Chapter Leader Forum, which is a developmental program for chapter-elected leaders, aspiring leaders and chapter staff.

Garcia said she was initially intimidated by the process of writing, debating and voting on resolutions at the 2022 NCCL, but a meeting of the minority constituency inspired her to take action.

“I wanted to bring forth a new resolution regarding eliminating medical student debt for minorities and disadvantaged groups,” she said. “Student loans are overwhelming for many of us, and debt is one of the barriers to increasing the number of people going into family medicine. I was able to learn how to write a resolution and worked with others to fine tune our idea and present it in the last session. We successfully passed it, which was super rewarding.”

Garcia also ran for minority co-convener during that 2022 NCCL.

“Unfortunately, I didn't get elected,” she said, “but I did learn a lot about public speaking, which was really helpful. I felt encouraged by my peers to try again the following year, and I felt like I could make a better impact by continuing to work with the colleagues I met and the relationships we established.”

Garcia, who has served on her local school board in Houston, started her leadership path with roles in her county medical society before she participated in the Texas AAFP’s Family Medicine Leadership Experience in 2020-21. That program teaches participants skills related to legislative advocacy, negotiation and conflict resolution; communications, public speaking and working with the media.

Networking was another important benefit of the chapter program, she said.

“We met three or four times throughout the year, so you get to know your colleague really well,” she said. “We still keep in touch to this day.”

Garcia, a graduate of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, almost took a different career path. She initially matched at Louisiana State University's combined emergency and internal medicine residency program.

“It was a great experience,” she said. “We did a lot of acute care in the ER, and I learned a lot. I liked the clinic aspect of internal medicine, the complexity, getting to know the patients, getting to be their primary doctor long term and being able to manage all their medical issues and being there for the patients anytime that they needed me. But I wasn’t getting that in the ER. I didn’t like how in the ER there was no continuity of care.”

Members of Garcia’s family were moving to Texas during her training, and she wanted to be closer to them. After two years at LSU, she went through the Match again and landed at Texas A&M’s Christus Spohn Family Medicine Residency in Corpus Christi.

As a family medicine resident, she developed a passion for palliative care and later completed a fellowship in palliative medicine and hospice care at the University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center.

“I was super blessed to have very good mentors in Dr. Yvonne Hinojosa during residency and Dr. Sandra Sanchez Reilly during my fellowship,” Garcia said. “They not only supported me as Hispanic female physician but also taught me the many facets of palliative compassionate care and treating the whole person and what really matters in their lives.”

Now she’s sharing what she learned as an assistant professor of family medicine and palliative care at the Baylor College of Medicine where she also is her clinic’s lead preceptor. More than half of her patient panel is geriatric, and up to 20% are in palliative care.

“For students it can be rewarding to be able to manage the symptoms of these patients and see the positive outcome that comes from treating their symptoms effectively,” she said. “It makes me feel good when a patient comes back to the clinic and they say, ‘My pain is now two out of 10, and before it was 10 out of 10.’ If they have metastatic bone cancer and some small thing you did enables them to play with their children or grandchildren, that’s really what palliative care is all about. It’s making them comfortable and improving their quality of life and managing their symptoms to help patients reach their daily and long-term goals.”

Garcia said several of her family members are engineers, but she knew as a small child that she wanted to be a doctor.

“It’s a difficult field, but it’s definitely rewarding,” she said. “That’s all I can imagine myself doing. My faith is super important to me. I believe medicine is a calling from God and also a gift He gives you, and I’m trying to serve my patients and God.”