Meet the candidates for TAFP Board of Directors

Meet the candidates for TAFP Board of Directors At the Member Assembly on Friday, Nov. 6, during this year’s Annual Session and Primary Care Summit, members will elect officers and a number of their colleagues to the TAFP Board of Directors. Three members are running for two available at-large positions.

According to the TAFP Bylaws, a slate of candidates is proposed by the Nominating Committee. Candidates may also be nominated by local chapters provided the nominations are made at least 90 days prior to the election, and candidates may be nominated from the floor at the Member Assembly. The candidates profiled here are running in the contested elections but the Member Assembly will cast votes for all of TAFP’s elected positions, including officers and open board positions. If you have any questions about the nomination or election process, please contact Kathy McCarthy at kmccarthy@tafp.org.

New physician director

Ikemefuna “Ike” Okwuwa, MD, FAAFP, graduated from the University of Benin Medical School in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. He completed residency training at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of the Permian Basin, where he is the program director in a residency program covering nine counties in the Permian Basin. He was elected to a seat in the Congress of Delegates at the National Conference of Constituency Leaders in 2015. He served as an alternate delegate the same year, and served as a special constituency delegate in 2016. He was elected to the Rules Committee during the 2016 Congress of Delegates. He previously served as the new physician member and currently serves as an at-large member of TAFP’s Board of Directors. He is a current member of AAFP’s Commission of Membership and Member Services. He has served as chairman of the department of family medicine at his local hospital and is the chairman of the Board of Directors of Permian Basin Health Network, a Physician-Hospital Organization. He was awarded the TAFP’s Special Constituency Leadership Award in 2019.

Lane Aiena, MD, is originally from Beaumont and earned his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He earned his medical degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine and completed his residency training in Conroe, Texas, where he was named Employee of the Quarter and Employee of the Year. He also won the Resident Teacher Award and a national Family Medicine Resident Advocacy Award for his efforts in Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas, on behalf of the underserved. During his third year of residency, he was named chief resident. He has served as the New Physician Director on the TAFP Board of Directors. He currently serves on the TAFP Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs and the Leadership Development Committee.

Gerald Banks, MD, MS, FAAFP, received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Boise State University and his Master of Science in Molecular Biology from California State University — Long Beach. He completed residency at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he was a Larry A. Green Scholar and studied family medicine health policy at the Robert Graham Center in Washington, D.C., He was also elected resident delegate to AAFP’s Congress of Delegates and resident trustee to the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians. He has a keen interest in family medicine health policy and workforce issues. He has been published frequently and his research has appeared in American Family Physician and Annals of Family Medicine. He was the featured speaker at the AAMC Health Workforce Research Conference in Washington, D.C. Most recently he was elected Member Constituency Delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates and serves on multiple committees for TAFP. He is a proud graduate of TAFP’s Family Medicine Leadership Experience and is a current member of the TAFP Board of Directors.