President's Message

Some highlights of the work of the WAFP throughout 2025 include the following:

Advocacy and Standing Up for Family Medicine, Our Patients & Our Communities

Advocacy and keeping abreast of the legislative efforts of our academy consistently ranks at the top in terms of what our members say they value most about our organization. This is a definite strength of our academy and cannot be underestimated. We unquestionably have dedicated legislative consulting staff as well as passionate executive leadership, board members and WAFP members who put a great deal of time and effort into making sure that Family Medicine has a seat at the table and that we are promoting policies that serve the best interests of our physician membership, patients and communities throughout the state.

Some major areas of focus over this past year have involved supporting:

• Medicaid expansion
• Comprehensive psychiatric care for all Wisconsin patients across the lifespan
• Increased funding for rural training and practice opportunities for our state’s medical students and residents interested in ultimately practicing in rural and underserved areas
• Continuing to elevate and promote the physician-led healthcare team while protecting family physician scope of practice and asserting that the work of mid-level providers, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants, be done in collaboration with not in isolation of a physician leader for the sake of patient safety
• Physician title protection and truth in advertising to our patients and communities in which we serve-- upholding that only those providers who have gone to medical school and earned an M.D., D.O, M.B.B.S. or comparable level doctorate medical degree be able to call themselves “Doctor” as it pertains to patient care

If you are ever wondering about or want to get more details about the complete legislative work of the academy including our legislative agenda, academy position statements on various issues and a bill tracker outlining key legislation pertinent to Family Medicine more information can be found on the WAFP website at the following links:

Legislative Agenda | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

Position Statements | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

Bill Tracker

If advocacy is something you are personally enthusiastic about, there are many ways to become more directly involved with the academy’s efforts in this. If you have a pre-established relationship with an elected representative or if you are willing to work to establish such a relationship, you may want to volunteer to be a key contact for the academy. In this role, you serve as a trusted and credible resource on health policy issues important to our members and are best able to communicate that directly to your elected representative. More information on this can be found on the academy’s website:

Key Contact/Advocacy Guide | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

The national AAFP website also has a grassroots advocacy tool entitled “Speak Out.” It helps you contact your state legislator on important issues relating to Family Medicine. They make this very simple and try hard to remove barriers to your submission by streamlining the process as much as possible and providing you with talking points and personalized message templates so that you don’t have to come up with this all on your own. It also gives you legislative alerts and updates, information on current legislation and tools to help you to find your local officials. You can learn more about this here:

Speak Out | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

Another way to become more involved is to participate in Wisconsin Doctor Day. This occurs annually at the state capitol in Madison and includes all medicine specialties, not just family medicine, throughout the state. This year it will be taking place on Thursday June 25, 2026. Registration is now open and available at the following link:

Doctor Day | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

The WAFP also operates a Political Action Committee (WIFamMedPAC) accepts contributions from individual members into a single account and uses the pooled funds to support political candidates. WIFamMedPAC, provides WAFP with a convenient tool to make political contributions to help elect state legislative candidates and other candidates for state governmental offices who support effective health care and workforce policies that protects the health and safety of patients and supports family physicians, and we regularly give to candidates on both sides of the political aisle. If you are interested in contributing to this fund, more information can be found on the WAFP website at the following link:

Political Action Committee | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

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Fostering & Supporting the Next Generation of Family Physicians

One of the core values of the WAFP is to grow and maintain a strong physician workforce throughout our state. A large portion of these efforts are dedicated toward attracting medical students to our specialty and encouraging them to pursue residency and future practice opportunities throughout our great state. WAFP staff personally visit each of our state’s residency programs each year to educate residents on topics of interest to them including but not limited to primary care investment, loan repayment opportunities and the importance of advocacy for our specialty and patients. During each of those residency visits, a stethoscope is gifted to one lucky resident attendee, and the funds for those stethoscopes are oftentimes raised from our quarterly drawings and the generous donations that our members make to the WAFP-Foundation.

Another important fundraising activity of the WAFP foundation that aligns with our academy’s strategic priorities, includes providing funding for medical students to attend the AAFP’s FUTURE conference (formerly known as the “AAFP National Conference”). This conference occurs annually each summer, and it is fundamental to informing and inspiring medical students nationally to ultimately choose to pursue family medicine as a career. The funds raised for this also come from the generous donations of our membership, and we want to extend a gracious ‘thank you’ to all of our donors for your commitment to a great cause that has an excellent return on investment with close to 90% of our prior scholarship recipients for this matching in to Family Medicine!

More information on the WAFP-Foundation, the philanthropic arm of our academy, including opportunities to provide your monetary support if you are so inclined, can be found at the following links:

Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians - Foundation

WAFP - Foundation Donation - WAFP Foundation

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Offering Excellent CME & Networking Opportunities

Our academy offers several great CME and networking opportunities throughout the year. One of the most worthwhile is the Winter Refresher Course that we sponsor in collaboration with the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). Save the date and plan to attend the 56^th annual presentation of this CME event taking place, March 12-13, 2026 at the historic Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. Course registration is now open and is available on the WAFP website at the following link: 2026 WAFP & MCW Winter Refresher Course. Don’t delay as discounted early bird rates end January 15^th, 2026.

Several important topics are being covered this year, with the full agenda available on the website. Come to earn valuable CME credits, but also to network with friends and colleagues throughout the entire state of Wisconsin.

The Pfister Hotel is offering a group rate of $219 to all WAFP members who place hotel reservations by February 18^th, 2026. You can reserve your hotel stay by following this link.

The WAFP also offers a handful of opportunities throughout the year to participate in virtual Knowledge Self Assessment (KSA) activities. These are sponsored through the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and include broad topics pertinent to the practice of family medicine. The most recent topics covered included ‘Care of Older Adults’ in October 2025 and ‘Hypertension’ in December 2025. We look forward to offering more in 2026 and hope that you will consider participating to meet your CME requirements and to collaborate with other colleagues throughout the state!

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Standing Behind Evidence Based Medicine & Solid Patient Care

In today’s landscape, there is so much misinformation, especially in the realm of vaccinations and their importance to personal and public health. The WAFP strives to serve to support family physicians as the voice of reason in combating false information and misrepresentations by endorsing evidence-based medicine rooted in true compassion and care for what is best for our patients and the communities in which we serve. The WAFP unequivocally stands behind the latest in vaccine science and the importance of immunizations as one of the most powerful tools ever to have been developed in improving public health, safety and quality of life. More information regarding our support of vaccination and tools to help to advance these efforts can be found on the WAFP website at the following link:

Vaccine Hesitancy Resource Center | Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

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Recognizing Excellence in the Practice of Family Medicine & Education Throughout Our State

Each year, the WAFP honors family physicians in our state who epitomize the tradition of ‘Family Doctor’ and ‘Physician as Teacher’ through our annual awards for Family Physician and Family Medicine Educator of the Year.

The award for Family Physician of the Year goes to an individual who role models outstanding, continuous, comprehensive and compassionate patient care while at the same time being intricately involved in the health and betterment of their community, the education of medical students/residents, working seamlessly as part of the health care team and striking a needed and sustainable balance between career and family. This year’s Family Physician of the Year award goes to Lee Dresang, M.D., who is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and co-Director of the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health rural FMOB fellowship. His commitment to rural training, specifically in the areas of women’s health, newborn care and obstetrics are unmatched and worthy of recognition.

The award for Family Medicine Educator of the Year goes to someone who is recognized by their peers, medical students and residents for their excellence in teaching and this extends not only to direct patient care, but to their involvement in the community and work within the broader interdisciplinary health care team. This year’s Family Medicine Educator of the Year award goes to Camille Garrison, M.D., FAAFP, who is currently an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Graduate Medical Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and Program Director of the North Side Milwaukee Family Medicine Residency. She is strongly committed to leadership, maternal health and obstetrics, care of marginalized populations, and the social determinants of health, and she exemplifies the qualities of an exceptional and revered physician teacher.

In years where the WAFP has a qualified candidate, we also bestow a Lifetime Achievement Award upon a very deserving individual who is an active or life member of the state academy with at least 25 years of membership in the Wisconsin chapter. This individual must have had a significant impact on Family Medicine as a specialty and within their community and has ultimately reached the pinnacle of their very impactful career. They have role modeled both outstanding care and commitment to their patients, communities and to the WAFP and our mission, vision and values for which we stand. This year’s Lifetime Achievement award goes to Jonathan Temte, MD, PhD, who is currently a professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. His entire career has been spent in the state of Wisconsin, and he has worked tirelessly toward the advancement of public health, immunization policy, infectious disease prevention and control and the training of our state’s new and future family physicians. He has spent numerous decades in research and community engagement and illustrates how family medicine physicians can not only be great clinicians but also dedicated scientific researchers and academic physicians.

The aforementioned individuals all have impressive careers and accomplishments and are so deserving of their awards and recognition. Each of these award winners will be honored at the WAFP Annual Business Meeting on Friday, March 13, 2026, at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, taking place during the MCW & WAFP annual Winter Refresher Course, and for which all WAFP members are encouraged and invited to attend. The annual business meeting portion of this course is free for all WAFP members.

I would be remiss if I did not also mention that we had several other extremely well qualified nominations for each of these award categories this year, and for this reason, we had a very difficult time selecting just one winner for each category. Everyone’s resume and story were remarkable and inspiring, and we thank all our members who submitted nominations for their very well deserving colleagues. Keep up the amazing and impactful work that you all do!

So, you can see that 2025 has been a very active and busy year for our academy. From all of us at the WAFP, we hope that you have found value in your membership this year and will continue to participate and benefit from what we have to offer you in the new year. Happy Holidays!