Give today to ensure tomorrow’s family physicians

In our Winter issue of The Compass, you’ll meet the AAFP Foundation’s 2025 winners of Philanthropist of the Year and Outstanding Program of the Year.

Dr. Ada Stewart, our Philanthropist of the Year, has touched the lives of so many family physicians as a board member, mentor and colleague. We’re grateful for her time, her endowment with the Foundation and her tireless advocacy on behalf of others especially women in medicine.

This year’s Outstanding Program of the Year is the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Foundation’s Leroy A. Rodgers, MD, Preceptorship Program, which just celebrated 35 years of matching medical students with clinical rotations the summer after their first year of medical school.

At the AAFP Foundation’s In Gratitude: A Celebration of Giving event during FMX, we heard from one of the preceptors who was once a student in the same program. It’s so important for us to secure the future primary care workforce, and I commend this chapter for actively developing that pipeline of family physicians.

This issue also spotlights our corporate donor at Amazon Pharmacy and some of the ways they are working to make the pharmacy experience better for both family physicians and patients.

Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase, MD, MPH, FAAFP

As we approach the end of my year-long term as board president, I want to thank you for your support of the AAFP Foundation’s signature programs. I think every president has their soft spot, and Family Medicine Cares (FMC) is mine. I've actively been involved in FMC International (FMCI) since we transitioned to serving in the Dominican Republic. We are working to ensure that our efforts remain aligned with the evolving paradigms and emerging needs in global health.

FMC USA, our domestic program, serves a vital need, as budget cuts affect underserved areas where there are free health clinics who have received FMC USA grants. I implore us to continue supporting these clinics with donations of funds, supplies and volunteer hours. Thank you to the family physicians, students, family medicine residents and other volunteers working to keep the doors open and ensure access for patients who need our care.

The Foundation produced an inspiring video featuring recipients of the FMC Resident Service Award, FMCI scholarship and FMC USA grant who are using your donations to improve lives across the country and around the world. If you haven’t seen it, please watch here and consider making a generous year-end donation to the AAFP Foundation.

Your gift helps ensure that the future of family medicine remains bright and strong. Our patients need us, and our communities need us now more than ever.

To our AAFP Foundation donors and the family medicine community, I thank you for all you continue to do to support our specialty, and I invite you to join me in welcoming our new board president for 2026, Dr. Renee Markovich.

Warm regards,

Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase, MD, MPH, FAAFP
President, AAFP Foundation