American Board of Family Medicine Elects New Officers and Board Members

Jane Ireland

doi:10.3122/jabfm.2018.04.180150

The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) is pleased to announce the election of 4 new officers and 3 new board members. The new officers elected at the ABFM's spring board meeting in April are the following: Jerry Kruse, MD, of Springfield, Illinois, as chair; John Brady, MD, of Newport News, Virginia, as chair-elect; Joseph Gravel, Jr., MD, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, as treasurer; and Colleen Conry, MD, of Aurora, Colorado, as member-at-large, executive committee. In addition, the ABFM welcomes this year's new members to the board of directors: Roger Bush, MD, of Seattle, Washington; Gerardo Moreno, MD, of Los Angeles, California; and Robert L. Wergin, MD, of Milford, Nebraska.

The new ABFM officers will each serve a 1-year term:

Dr. Kruse is a professor in both the Department of Family & Community Medicine and Medical Education as well as dean and provost of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Before this, Dr. Kruse spent 9 years as the executive director of the Quincy Family Medicine Program and 19 years on the faculty of the Quincy Family Practice Residency Program, serving as assistant program director for 9 years and as program director for 12 years. Dr. Kruse will serve the ABFM on the executive committee as its chair.

Dr. Brady works at Tidewater Physicians Multispecialty Group's–The Village Doctor, a solo family practice office located in the historic Hilton Village neighborhood of Newport News, VA. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Brady will serve the ABFM on the Executive Committee, the Bylaws Committee, the Operations Committee, the Examination Committee, the Audit/Finance Committee, the Research & Development Committee, and the Certification Committee.

Dr. Gravel is the chief medical officer and the chair of Family Medicine & Community Health at the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. He served as a residency program director for 20 years. He is a past president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians, and the Family Medicine Education Consortium. He currently also serves as chair of the Academic Family Medicine Advocacy Committee and on the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's board of directors. Dr. Gravel is a professor of Family Medicine & Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Gravel will serve the ABFM on the executive committee, the examination committee, the communications/publications committee, the certification committee, and as chair of the bylaws, the credentials, and audit/finance committees.

Dr. Conry is the senior vice-president for Quality and Clinical Affairs in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado. She previously served as vice-chair of Graduate Medical Education at the University of Colorado. Dr. Conry will serve the ABFM on the executive committee, the bylaws committee, the credentials committee, the examination committee, the audit/finance committee, the research and development committee, and the communications/publications committee as its chair.

The ABFM welcomes 3 new members to the board of directors:

Dr. Bush is a primary care internist at Neighborcare Health, the largest provider of primary medical, dental and behavioral health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals in Seattle, Washington. He is the founding program director of the Internal Medicine residency at Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana. Prior to his time in Billings, Dr. Bush spent 29 years with Virginia Mason Home Health Services and Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle. He founded and was director of the Virginia Mason Internal Medicine residency program's HIV Clinic. Dr. Bush will serve the ABFM on the Examination Committee and the Communications/Publications Committee.

Dr. Moreno is an associate professor of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) and a practicing family physician. He is trained in health services and outcomes research, is the director of the UCLA Program in Medical Education for medical students pursuing concurrent degrees with an interest in improving health care in underserved communities, and also trains family medicine residents. He was previously a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation clinical scholar at UCLA and a James C. Puffer, MD/American Board of Family Medicine fellow at the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Moreno will serve the ABFM on the credentials committee and the research and development committee.

Dr. Wergin is a practicing family physician in Milford, Nebraska, the town where he was born and raised. He practices the full spectrum of family medicine at the Milford Family Practice Center, from obstetrics to geriatrics. He also serves as medical director of Crest View Care Center and the Milford Volunteer Fire Department and has served as past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He was awarded the Nebraska Family Physician of the Year award in 2002, the Nebraska Nursing Home Medical Director of the Year in 2012, and the Nebraska Outstanding Rural Family Physician of the Year for Nebraska in 2015. Dr. Wergin will serve the ABFM on the research and development committee and the certification committee.

The remaining current members of the board are the following: Wendy Biggs, MD, of Overland Park, Kansas; Beth Bortz of Richmond, Virginia; Christopher A. Cunha, MD, of Crestview Hills, Kentucky; Montgomery Douglas, MD, of Farmington, Connecticut; Lauren S. Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Michael K. Magill, MD, of Salt Lake City, Utah; John Mellinger, MD, of Springfield, Illinois; Robert J. Ronis, MD, MPH, of Cleveland, Ohio; David E. Soper, MD, of Charleston, South Carolina; Daniel Spogen, MD, of Sparks, Nevada; and Melissa Thomason of Pinetops, North Carolina.