Member of the Month
Meet our past Members of the Month
May | Gregory Johnson, M.D.
Houston
Hospitalist raised attending TAFP meetings with father
Houston hospitalist Gregory Johnson, M.D., is board certified in both family and internal medicine and serves as the chief medical officer for the central and southeast regions of Sound Physicians, a hospitalist organization founded and led by physicians. His father Glen, a former TAFP president and Physician Emeritus, began taking him to TAFP meetings over two decades ago.
April | Joey Koch, M.D.
Lufkin
New physician returns to hometown to practice
Hearing stories about his local physician grandfather and watching the local family physicians at work sparked an interest in family medicine for a young Joey Koch, M.D. He ventured to College Station, San Antonio, and Waco for his education, but returned to his hometown of Lufkin to begin his practice. After working within the Scott and White system for a year, Koch and his psychiatrist wife Rebekah began their own private practice at the Tall Pines Family Clinic.
March | Jane Sadler, M.D.
Garland
Physician is active in local community, also a published writer
Coming from a family of physicians, Jane Sadler, M.D., had no trouble choosing medicine as a major. Her mother’s experience as a family physician drove her to choose the same specialty, leading to her current position practicing as a Baylor physician representative with the Family Medical Center at North Garland. As volunteer faculty with the Baylor Garland Family Practice program, Sadler says she enjoys “teaching young doctors the exclusive art of family medicine.”
February | Sister Rosanne Popp, M.D.
Houston
Physician serves the needy through religious life, family medicine
From a young age, our February Member of the Month knew she wanted to be a nurse. But after finishing nurse practitioner training, her goal to serve the poor drew her to pursue her medical degree and she found family medicine to be a good fit. In addition to her service as a family physician, she felt called to enter the sisterhood and become a nun.
January | Arie Marancenbaum, M.D.
Dallas
Wound care physician comes from medical family, loves teaching
Born and raised in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Arie Marancenbaum, M.D., now practices at the Lake Pointe Wound Care Center east of Dallas in Rowlett, Texas. His father’s work in engineering sparked his interest in science, while his two uncles in the medical field inspired him to become a physician. He says his career as a physician has exceeded his expectations, but he thinks eventually he will return to the academia world. “After all, the word doctor in Latin is ‘docere,’ which means to teach,” says Dr. Marancenbaum on his plans of becoming a teacher.
2012
December | Jerry Abraham, M.P.H.
San Antonio
Student member is a leader in the world of medicine
Jerry Abraham, M.P.H., a third-year medical student at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is a busy man, to put it simply. He is a representative, delegate, member, and president to several organizations and committees throughout the state and around the world, including chair to the Academy’s Section on Medical Students. His love of people and desire to contribute to the greater good of public health drove him to choose primary care as a specialty.
November | Charles J. Caskey, M.D. | Beaumont
Life member reflects on life, medicine, and caring for patients like family
At age 84, 11 years after retirement from the Beaumont practice he ran for more than 40 years, Charles “Chuck” Caskey, M.D., still visits with former patients and staff members. He watched medicine change greatly during this time, sometimes for the better and sometimes not, as he says, but his patients were like family and they made each day worth it.
October | Jorge Duchicela, M.D. | Weimar
Physician serves rural Texas and Ecuador through practice, institute
Jorge Duchicela, M.D., is a rural private practice physician in Weimar where he serves a community of patients that is diverse in ethnicity, age, gender, geographical location, and social stratum. He also founded Cachamsi, a nonprofit medical immersion institute, in Cacha, Ecuador, that brings health professionals to this rural community to care for the patients there, learn Spanish so they can better communicate with their Spanish-speaking patients at home, and learn global and cross-cultural medicine.
September | Elizabeth Tran, M.D. | Houston
Resident member drawn to medicine through international volunteer work
Now chief resident for the Baylor Family Residency Program in Houston, Elizabeth Tran, M.D., joined the U.S. Peace Corps after graduating from college to learn about other cultures, and at the same time gained a deep appreciation for her own life: her family and friends, health, and education. She realized she wanted to help people improve their lives through their health, which led her to pursue family- and community-based medicine with a focus on women’s health.
August | Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, M.D., M.P.H. | Austin
Lone Star Circle of Care executive strives to help the underserved
A Chicago native, Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee moved to Texas in March 2011 to take the reins at Lone Star Circle of Care, a federally qualified health center with 26 locations across four counties in Central Texas. She’s passionate about access to care and patient-centered medicine.
July | Troy Russell | San Antonio
TAFP student member chooses family medicine through passion for public health, research
A fourth-year medical student, Troy Russell is certain that family medicine is the right specialty for him as it combines his passions for research, public health, and continuity of care. He feels fortunate to be joining the profession in a time when family physicians can reshape the medical profession for the better.
June | Christina Kelly, M.D. | Harker Heights
New physician finds renewal for specialty through AAFP involvement
As an Army wife, Christina Kelly, M.D., has worked in a variety of practice settings — from employed to part-time residency program faculty to her current position as civilian faculty at the Family Medicine Residency at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. She has been involved in the Academy on the state and national level since medical school, feeling re-energized for family medicine with each conference.
May | Edwin Franks, M.D. | Iraan
TAFP Life Member recalls the golden years of family medicine
Edwin R. Franks, M.D., now retired, practiced family medicine for 51 years in the small rural town of Iraan, Texas – pronounced “Ira-Ann,” a mash-up of the names of a cattle rancher and his wife. Over his career, he delivered 3,000 babies, spanning generations, and saw the full spectrum of family medicine, “from soup to nuts,” as he said when he sat down with TAFP at the C. Frank Webber Lectureship in March 2012.
April | Ikemefuna Charles Okwuwa, M.D. | Odessa
Resident dreams of teaching, tells first-years to “seize every opportunity”
Dr. Okwuwa is a third-year resident at Texas Tech Health Science Center Department of Family Medicine in Odessa, Texas. Though now a U.S. citizen, he was born in Nigeria and received medical training at the School of Medicine at the University of Benin in Nigeria. He loves family medicine for the variety and hopes to join his residency’s faculty to give back to future physicians what he has received from his residency mentors.
March | Dustin Pratt, M.D. | Childress
Family physician practices full-spectrum medicine in rural Texas
Dr. Pratt is a family physician in the small rural town of Childress, Texas, halfway between Wichita Falls and Amarillo in the Texas panhandle. He enjoys the diversity of family medicine, and certainly practices the full spectrum in his local clinic and hospital, though he worries about the “ever increasing difficulty to recruit new physicians that do full spectrum family medicine.”
February | John Redman, M.D., M.S. | Anahuac
New physician drawn to breadth of specialty, serving the underserved
Dr. Redman is a family physician at Bayside Clinic, a federally qualified health center 50 miles east of Houston, where he serves the poor and indigent of Chambers County. He felt drawn to work at an FQHC because of his residency training at the Waco Family Medicine Program, another FQHC, and because he enjoys helping patients who would not otherwise have access to health care.
January | Lisa Doggett, M.D., M.P.H. | Austin
Austin physician “makes a difference” by caring for the underserved
In her 10 years as a family physician, Dr. Doggett has dedicated her career to caring for the uninsured, underinsured, and others in need, following in the footsteps of her parents for whom “public service is a way of life.”
2011
November | Claudia Aguero-Vazquez, M.D. | Harlingen
Rio Grande Valley educator coaches residents, patients to be their best
Though Dr. Aguero-Vazquez began her career in private practice, she is now faculty at Valley Baptist Family Practice Residency Program. It’s here that she shines as a “remarkable leader, cheerleader, and coach.”
October | J. Mark Anderson, M.D., and Walter Gaman, M.D. | Southlake
Southlake physicians share family medicine with broad audience
As hosts of a popular Dallas radio show and authors of a new book, Drs. Anderson and Gaman are no strangers to the media. The Southlake family physicians say it’s important to provide a family medicine perspective because family physicians are “on the front lines” and “see the big picture.”
September | Aaron Segal, M.D. | Plano
“Family practice” holds extra meaning for Plano physician
In practice with his wife and father, Dr. Segal reflects on his experience working with family, gives thoughts on the broken reimbursement model, and tells how one ride in a college campus ambulance sealed his destiny to become a physician.
August | Kevin P. Spencer, M.D. | Austin
Physician uses innovation and technology to deliver better patient care
A private practice physician at Premier Family Physicians in Austin, Texas, Dr. Spencer delivers quality patient care through traditional family medicine mixed with innovation and health information technology.
July | Emily Sullivan Meyer, M.D. | Hondo
Fourth-generation physician carries on tradition of patient care in rural Texas
Dr. Meyer is a rural physician in Hondo, Texas, who currently practices with her father and four other family physicians. Her family's medical tradition started with her great-grandfather when he moved to Hondo and opened a general practice in 1906.
June | Christine Criscuolo Higgins, M.D. | San Antonio
Academic physician’s love of fitness inspires community involvement
Clinical faculty at the Christus Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Program in San Antonio, Dr. Higgins’ approach to medicine combines her family medicine training, passion for the underserved, and love of fitness.
May | Julie Graves Moy, M.D., M.P.H. | Austin
Physician explores many sides of family medicine
Dr. Graves Moy currently works for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, but has worked in academia, private practice, and emergency medicine as well. She’s currently working on her doctorate in policy management and biostatistics.
April | Loren S. Lasater, M.D. | Roanoke
Physician invigorates practice through military service
Dr. Lasater joined the U.S. Army Reserve to care for soldiers serving abroad and in the United States. Through this service he has gained knowledge and experience working with other physicians and in other health care systems that make him a better physician in his home practice.
March | Howard Brody, M.D. | Galveston
Galveston physician educates patients, promotes specialty through writing
Dr. Brody contributes columns to local newspapers to educate patients on their health and on the specialty of family medicine, and has dedicated his career to medical ethics.
February | Chrisette Dharma, M.D. | Dallas
Presenting our inaugural Member of the Month
Your Academy is proud to launch a new program that celebrates the breadth of family medicine, the Member of the Month program. Each month, TAFP will present a short biography and question-and-answer segment that spotlights a family physician’s unique approach to medicine. Read about our first member of the month, Chrisette Dharma, M.D., of Dallas, and consider nominating a colleague.