Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians’ (LAFP) chapter leaders met in Kansas City, MO, April 17 – 20 for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) National Conference of Constituency Leaders (NCCL) and the Annual Chapter Leader Forum (ACLF).

Louisiana’s official delegates to NCCL included:

• Amy Galliano, MD (new physician representative)
• Letecia Antunes, MD (minority physician representative)
• Lindsay Liles, MD (women physician representative)
• Oanh Truong, MD (LGBTQ+ physicians or physician allies representative)
• Richard Edward Bridges MD, FAAFP (IMG physician representative)

The National Conference of Constituency Leaders (NCCL) is the AAFP’s leadership development event that empowers underrepresented constituencies, including: Women physicians; Minority physicians; New physicians; International medical graduate physicians; and LGBTQ+ physicians to catalyze positive change in family medicine and create a lasting impact for current and future generations of family physicians.

The Annual Chapter Leader Forum (ACLF) is a time to focus on new ways to address the issues that affect chapters, by engaging in important dialogue. ACLF draws physician leaders and chapter staff from around the country each year, and features sessions around priority issues in leadership development, policy advocacy, engaging chapter members, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.  Louisiana members attending included:

• LAFP President elect, Lisa Casey, MD 
• Ragan LeBlanc, Executive Vice President,
• Lee Ann Albert, Membership and Outreach Coordinator
• Lisa Lapeyrouse, Marketing and Events Coordinator.

Highlights of NCCL/ACLF included:

• All of our NCCL delegates participated in the special constituency election process to fill various national-level leadership positions – each did a tremendous job.
• Members participated in breakout sessions that covered governance; communications; advocacy; media relations; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and membership issues.
• A Town Hall discussion with AAFP’s elected leaders, sessions on member engagement, and a plenary session tackling the topic of fighting physician burnout through advocacy. Other breakout discussions focused on continuing medical education accreditation, Medicaid waivers, navigating difficult advocacy topics, health equity, media training, and medical coding, just to name a few.
• A pre-conference on advancing health equity and social justice featured Christen Johnson, MD, MPH, FAAFP, who lead an advanced class through “Applying Anti-Racism and Social Justice Concepts in Clinical Practice and Community Settings.”

In 2025, the leadership conference will be held Thursday-Saturday, April 23-26, 2025, in Kansas City. Save the date and plan to attend next year!