Members elect TAFP leaders during the 2025 Annual Session and Primary Care Summit

The TAFP Member Assembly elected the Academy’s officers, new members for the board of directors, and two representatives to the AAFP Congress of Delegates during this year’s Annual Session.

Earlier in the year, the TAFP Nominating Committee interviewed active members interested in each of the available positions and put forth a slate of candidates for consideration by delegates to the Member Assembly. The Residency Network and FMIG Network, representing residency programs and medical schools respectively, elected their candidates for the board of directors. The election was held at the Member Assembly meeting on Friday, November 14, 2025.

Ikemefuna Okwuwa, MD, was elected to serve as the Academy's president. He serves as residency program director for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of the Permian Basin and is chairman of the board of directors for Permian Basin Health Network, a physician-hospital organization. He graduated from the University of Benin Medical School in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, and completed residency training at TTUHSCPB. He previously served as the new physician member and an at-large member on TAFP’s Board of Directors.

Adrian Billings, MD, PhD, was elected to serve as TAFP president-elect. He is the Chief Medical Officer of Preventative Care Health Services FQHC in the Big Bend, and he is the Associate Academic Dean of Rural and Community Engagement and Senior Fellow of the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He has been a career-long rural community physician along the Texas-Mexico border in West Texas. Billings is passionate about enabling rural-born and educated students’ opportunities to enroll in health care training programs.

Puja Sehgal, MD, was elected to serve as TAFP’s treasurer. She is a practicing family physician in Houston, and currently serves as the Chief of Family Medicine Department at Kelsey-Seybold and an elected board member of Kelsey Seybold medical group. She completed medical school in India, an internship at Wichita Falls Family Medicine Residency Program, and residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She is past president of the Harris County chapter and has served on various committees and councils during her 20 year membership with TAFP. She previously chaired the Section on Special Constituencies and served as vice chair of the Council on Medical Practice. She served on the TAFP board in 2020 and has mentored residents for TAFP’s Resident Leadership Experience program. 

Lane Aiena, MD, was elected to serve as TAFP’s parliamentarian. He is a family medicine doctor at Huntsville Family Medicine in Huntsville, Texas. After completing his undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University, he attended medical school at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center School of Medicine and completed residency in Conroe, Texas. He previously served on the TAFP board as an at-large member and the new physician director. He chairs the Texas Medical Association’s Young Physician Section and is president of the Walker–Trinity County Medical Society. Previously recognized with the TAFP Public Health Award and as Walker County Citizen of the Year, he is dedicated to leadership, advocacy, and improving patient care in his community and across Texas. He hosts the popular local radio segment “Thursday Morning House Call,” promoting health education and strengthening the physician–patient relationship.

Donald R. Niño, MD, was elected to serve as an at-large member on the TAFP board. He is an employed family physician with HCA at Channelview Family Medicine. He received his medical degree from McGovern Medical School in Houston and completed his family medicine residency at Memorial Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. He opened his solo family medicine practice on the east side of Houston in 1986. He has volunteer faculty appointments with McGovern Medical School and Fertitta Family Medical School at the University of Houston. He was selected as a Distinguished Alumnus of McGovern Medical School in 1999 and as TAFP’s Texas Family Physician of the Year in 2001. He is on the Board of Trustees of the HCA Hospital Southeast and is a Certified Healthcare Trustee.  

Tina Philip, DO, was also elected to serve as an at-large member on the TAFP board. She is a solo practice family physician in Round Rock, Texas. She has a long history in organized medicine and currently serves as Immediate Past President of the Travis County Medical Society and Vice Chair of the TMA Council on Socioeconomics. She has previously served as Chair of the TAFP Council on Medical Practice and Chair of the TMA Women Physicians Section. She has a particular interest in development and promotion of female leadership in organized medicine and the preservation of independent medical practice. 

Amanda Mohammed-Strait, MD, was elected to serve on the TAFP board as the advocate for diversity and health equity. She is a board-certified family physician passionate about community health, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and health equity. Mohammed-Strait currently practices as the Community Health and Engagement Lead Physician at Oak Street Health in Southeast Dallas and sits on its Health Equity Advisory Council. She earned her medical degree from Ross University and completed residency at UT Southwestern/Parkland Hospital in Dallas. She is active in TAFP and on several statewide health committees, leads Walk with a Doc Dallas, and serves on the Young Professionals Advisory Council for the HIV/AIDS Resource Center. Her recognitions include TAFP Humanitarian of the Year in 2021 and D Magazine’s Best Doctors, 2023–2025. 

Zachary Sartor, MD, MPH, was elected to serve as a new physician director on the TAFP board. He is a family medicine physician with Waco Family Medicine Residency, serving as Associate Program Director for Curriculum and Evaluation. He is also board-certified in addiction medicine, serving as the Director for Primary Care Addiction Medicine at Waco Family Medicine. He received his medical degree from Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine and completed his family medicine residency training at Waco Family Medicine, as well as an academic development fellowship at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center. Sartor recently completed an MPH through the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he was named a Bloomberg American Health Initiative scholar in the addiction and overdose focus area. He has been active with TAFP since 2016, serving on the Council on Health of the Public and completing the FMLE program in 2021.

Jose Rincon, MD, was elected to serve as the resident director on the TAFP board. He is a family medicine resident at DHR Health in McAllen, Texas. He completed his medical degree at La Universidad del Zulia in Venezuela, where he served multiple terms as class representative. As a resident, Rincon has taken on key leadership roles within the institution — first as resident chair starting in his intern year, and now as chief resident. He is recognized for his dedication to medical education, advocacy, and team-based care. Driven by his lifelong love for athletics and musculoskeletal medicine, Rincon is pursuing his dream of becoming a sports medicine physician in the coming year.

Brittany Uebbing was elected to serve as the student director on the TAFP board. She is a fourth-year medical student at the UNT Health Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth. Originally from Round Rock, she completed her undergraduate studies in biochemistry and business at UT Austin before moving to Jacksonville, Florida for a gap year. In Jacksonville, she served as a maternal health care coordinator in the National Health Corps — AmeriCorps and grew her passion for maternal health and working with refugees. During medical school, she led a free primary care clinic for refugees at a local apartment complex. Outside the city, she has served on one medical mission to Guatemala and five to West Texas.

Emily Briggs, MD, MPH, was elected to serve as a delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates. She practices full-scope family medicine, including operative obstetrics, in New Braunfels, Texas. She received her medical degree and a master's degree in public health from the University of Texas at Houston. She has a longstanding history of actively serving with AAFP, TAFP, AMA, and TMA. She currently serves as AAFP delegate to the AMA as well as delegate to the TMA House of Delegates on behalf of the LGBTQ Health Section. In 2024 she completed her rotation through the TAFP officer positions, completing her year as board chair and immediate past president. Briggs is the TMA 2021 Young at Heart Award recipient and was recently awarded an honorary fellowship by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

Janet Hurley, MD, MBA, was elected to serve as alternate delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates. She is the Director of Physician Practice Operations for CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic, where she has gained extensive expertise in clinic operations, population health, associate health, and pharmacy procedures. She earned her MD from the Texas A&M College of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. She is a former board chair and past president of TAFP, having contributed to the organization through service on a wide range of commissions, committees, and task forces.