Member News

Four TAFP members appointed to AAFP committees
Three active members and one resident member of TAFP were named to participate on AAFP committees this year. The three regular members will serve terms of four years while the resident member will serve for one year.

Mark Malone, MD, will serve on the AAFP Commission on Continuing Professional Development. Malone is an experienced teacher who taught music education in the public-school system before choosing to pursue medicine. He is a hospitalist at UT Health East Texas Physicians in Tyler. For the past decade he’s served on TAFP’s Commission on Continuing Professional Development and has been active in ensuring the success of many of TAFP’s educational programs.

Rita Schindeler-Trachta, DO, will serve on the AAFP Commission on Health of the Public and Science. Schindeler-Trachta started her career of service in the United States Air Force and now serves her community as a family medicine physician, 18 years now and counting. She works full-time with geriatric patients at the Austin State Hospital and part-time providing end-of-life care at the Hospice Austin Christopher House. She dedicates a significant amount of her time educating the public on chronic health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and intimate partner violence. Schindeler-Trachta became involved with TAFP as a new physician and has continued to show her passion for public health by serving for over 10 years on the TAFP Commission on Public Health, Research, and Clinical Affairs.

Richard Young, MD, was appointed to the AAFP Commission on Quality and Practice. Young is the research director for the JPS Family Medicine Program in Fort Worth and an active participant in TAFP’s governance, for more than 15 years. He researches and writes actively about our health care system’s quality and maintains a blog on the subject, www.healthscareonline.com. Young serves on the TAFP Commission on Health Care Services and Managed Care and leads the Tarrant County Chapter of TAFP.

Jayaprada “Jaya” Kasaraneni, MD, was appointed to the AAFP Commission on Continuing Professional Development. Kasaraneni is a family medicine resident physician at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Permian Basin in Odessa. Her education in medicine and healthcare management led her to streamline and improve systems of professional support and development in the various practice settings she worked for along the way. Kasaraneni has been a TAFP member since the start of her residency in 2017.

Goertz receives Distinguished Service Award
Roland A. Goertz, MD, MBA, was presented with the McLennan County Medical Society’s fifth annual Presidential Distinguished Service Award at a banquet on Dec. 5 in his hometown of Waco.

A past president and board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Goertz has been one of the most influential members of TAFP over the past two decades.

In his home community, he has served in numerous capacities both in and out of the field of medicine. Among his most important positions, he has been chief executive officer of the Heart of Texas Community Health Center, Inc., overseeing all operations of the Waco Family Health Center since 1997.

Goertz graduated medical school from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and completed his residency training at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. He completed a clinical teaching fellowship in family medicine in 1986 and received a master’s in business administration from Baylor University in 2003.