Meet the TAFP Board candidates

At the Member Assembly on Friday, Nov. 4 during this year’s TAFP Annual Session and Primary Care Summit, members will elect two of their colleagues to the TAFP Board of Directors. Three members are running for one available at-large position and two members are running to hold the new physician position.

According to the TAFP Bylaws, a slate of candidates are 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. If you have any questions about the nomination or election process, please contact Kathy McCarthy at kmccarthy@tafp.org.

At-large director

A graduate of both the University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center and School of Public Health, Emily Briggs, MD, MPH, completed her residency with the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Program. Briggs is currently the medical director for the Comal and New Braunfels Independent School Districts and the founder of the Briggs Family Medicine private practice clinic. She has served as president, president-elect, vice-president, and secretary of the TAFP Alamo Chapter, and served three years as new physician director on the TAFP board and one year as new physician director on the AAFP board.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, Grant Fowler, MD, stayed on to complete his residency training at Memorial Family Residency Program. Fowler is currently a professor and vice chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the McGovern Medical School. He is a member of the National Procedures Institute advisory committee and the TAFP Commission on Continuing Professional Development. He is also the co-editor of “Pfenninger and Fowler’s Procedures for Primary Care.”

Oscar Garza, MD, served in the United States Navy, in active duty from 1974-1979 and as a reservist from 1979-1984, before being awarded his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1985. Garza went on to complete his residency at the Texas Tech University Health Center in 1988. He now lives in Pearsall, where he is the medical director for the Family Medicine Clinic and Pearsall Nursing and Rehab, as well as the chief of staff for the Frio Regional Hospital. Garza has served on the TAFP Commission on Professional Development, the Finance Committee, and the Leadership Development Committee.

New physician director

An alumnus of the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, Angela Cade, MD, completed her residency at UT Health Northeast Family Residency Program in Tyler, where she is now an assistant professor of medicine. She has held two professor positions and worked for Good Shepherd Medical Associates of Longview. Cade is a member of the TAFP Commission of Academic Affairs and has volunteered free-to-low-cost medical care in multiple East Texas cities.

Upon graduating from the University of Benin Medical School in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, Ikemefuna “Ike” Okwuwa, MD, completed his residency at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of the Permian Basin, where he is now on staff. He was elected to be a representative from the National Conference of Constituency Leaders to the Congress of Delegates in 2015, served as alternate delegate that year and as a member constituency delegate in 2016, and was elected to the rules committee for this year’s congress.