• Jay Gruhlkey, M.D. 
• Sandra Guerra-Cantu, M.D.
• Sarah Teurman, M.D.
• Information about the award

"We’re looking for exemplary patient care, interpersonal relationships, demonstrated leadership, professional achievement, community and social involvement," says Peggy Fletcher, AAFP’s administrator for the award. "I enjoy working with [the candidates] every year, they are such a great group of people," she says.

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Jay Gruhlkey of Southwest Memorial Family Practice Residency in Pearland, Texas, says he feels leadership demonstrated by his work as one of the chief residents at his program and his positions on TAFP committees and the TMA Committee for Rural Health helped him win the award. He says he knew he wanted to do primary care because of the variety of practice and the responsibility to community it offered. "You may be the only doctor for many miles, so you need to be as flexible as you can be," he says.

Gruhlkey looks forward to returning to practice in the area around his hometown of Plainview, Texas. Because of his participation in the Center for Rural Health Initiative Scholar Recognition Program, the community of Quanah, Texas, 100 miles west of his hometown, has funded part of his medical education. He and his wife, a faculty member in the emergency medicine department at Southwest Memorial, plan to move to Quanah once he’s finished with residency. "She’s waiting for me to get done, basically," Gruhlkey says.

The second Texas winner, Sandra Guerra-Cantu, from Christus Santa Rosa Family Practice Residency in San Antonio and her husband, David, who is chief resident there, hail from the Valley where they intend to return to practice. "We like to take care of minority indigent populations," she says, adding, "it’s something we feel very strongly about because that’s what we grew up with."

Cantu intends to spend one extra year in a preventive medicine residency in San Antonio so she’ll be double-board certified in family practice and preventive medicine. She feels her commitment to community service, evident by her record of service at an indigent clinic in San Antonio and the Hispanic Center of Excellence mentorship program, helped her win the award.

Sarah Teurman studied medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, and moved to Texas to be near her husband’s family. She’s now a resident in the Garland Family Practice Residency Program at Baylor University, and she says she loves it. A world traveler, she’s been from Belize to New Zealand hiking and camping.

In her application for the award, she wrote that she wants to continue to volunteer her time as a physician, teacher, role model and parent. While in Washington, Teurman was involved with Partners Against Youth Gun Violence and she was a Sacagawea Elementary School volunteer reading tutor. Now she’s heavily involved with the New Horizons Program of the Garland Independent School District where she provides prenatal care and well child care for young parents in high school. She also does school sports physicals and classroom presentations on subjects like breast-feeding, contraception, vaccinations and other questions about newborns. She and her family plan to move to the north Dallas area when she’s finished with her residency.

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