IAFP past president Javette C. Orgain, MD received an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois Chicago Alumni Association on May 14. Dr. Orgain received her BS, MD and MPH degrees all from UIC and has continued to contribute as a physician, educator and mentor ever since.

Lisa Green, DO, MPH, Chief Executive Officer at Family Christian Health Center, was named one of Crains Notable Leaders in Health Care 2026.

IAFP member Rahmat Na’Allah, MD was voted onto the Infant and Maternal Mortality Task Force of the Illinois Department of Public Health last week, serving as a representative of the IAFP. The task force created in 2019 includes representation from different stakeholders who have shared passion in reducing infant and maternal mortality in Illinois. They are especially tasked with looking at the racial disparity in these poor outcomes and identifying strategies to not only reduce the mortality rates, but specifically narrowing this gap.  

Dr. Ruchi Fitzgerald is ISMS Physician of the Year Congratulations to an IAFP member whose advocacy and education work have had a profound impact on the community. Ruchi Fitzgerald, MD is the recipient of the 2026 ISMS Physician of the Year award. Dr. Fitzgerald is the service chief for PCC Community Wellness Center-MacNeal Hospital’s addiction medicine consult service and an associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Rush Medical College. As a family physician and addiction medicine specialist, she has expanded the scope of services for pregnant women experiencing substance use disorder across diverse settings. Dr. Fitzgerald was also a presenter at the IAFP’s first ever Implicit Bias four-part workshop held online during the pandemic shutdown in 2021.

Kiran Joshi, MD, chief operating officer for the Cook County Department of Public Health, authored a commentary in the April 20 Chicago Sun-Times on the importance for everyone to pre-bunk misleading health information, especially about vaccines.

IAFP First Vice President Mustafa Alavi, MD appeared in a WBEZ-Illinois Public Radio and Chicago Sun-Times investigation of the impact of higher ACA premiums on Chicagoland patients. Dr. Alavi is chief medical officer at the FQHC clinic Erie Family Health Center Evanston/Skokie.

Paul Luning, MD and Mark Loafman, MD were mentioned in an April 20 Austin Weekly News story chronicling the history of obstetrics services at West Suburban Medical Center and the impact of the hospital’s closing on the community. 

Drs. Joseph Ross and Mary Jo Ironside who retired together April 1. PGY-3 Reilly Wojciehowski MD shared their stories through a guest article in the Rockford Register Star and Freeport Journal Standard. Dr. Ross is also the IAFP 2022 Family Physician of the Year. Together they formed a foundation for family medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and the Family Medicine Residency that continues to grow and thrive.

Our letter to the editor from IAFP President Corinne Kohler, MD, urging seasonal and vaccine use, especially the RSV vaccine, was published in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Champaign News-Gazette.       

Alyssa Vest Hart, DO, is the Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School, which will begin its first class this fall. Dr. Hart is the 2020 IAFP Illinois Family Physician of the Year and previously served as program director of the Ascension Saint Joseph - Chicago Family Medicine Residency Program.

Joanna Bisgrove, MD, of Chicago, did a live interview with Fox32 Chicago on Dec. 23, 2025, to discuss the rise in Syphilis cases nationwide and in Chicago. View the 12-minute segment here.

Impact of Cuts to Federal Medicaid Funding Evelyn Figueroa, MD was featured in July 1 Block Club Chicago story to illuminate the impact the cuts to Medicaid and food programs will have on health and food insecurity on the community she serves in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. 

Explaining and advocating for Illinois' Seasonal Vaccine Guidance, Dr. Kiran Joshi appeared live on the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio "In the Loop" show on Sept. 24 about the seasonal vaccines for all ages, including Covid vaccines. The state's Vaccine Advisory Committee recommendations largely mirrored the expert guidance of physician organizations such as the AAFP and ACOG.

Board member Rebecca Maddrell, MD, was included in a Chicago Sun-Times September 11 story about the COVID vaccine availability and confusion created by policies announced by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. That same story was also posted on WBEZ, Chicago public radio. IAFP past president Michael Hanak, MD, appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Decatur Herald & Review, and the Bloomington Pantagraph on the topic of COVID vaccines and confusion over access and eligibility.

Evelyn Figueroa, MD co-founder of the Pilsen Food Pantry was featured in the New York Times on Oct. 19 and CBS2 Chicago News on Oct. 20.

Steven Rothschild, MD, the 2024 IAFP Vincent D. Keenan Servant Leader Award, authored an October 7 Chicago Tribune letter to the editor that recapped his personal experience at the Oct 3 peaceful protest in Broadview outside of the U.S. immigration detention center

The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford and their Family Medicine Residency Program welcomed two fourth year medical students Cheyenne Carr and Laura Berger as they joined the Family Medicine Integrated Residency program. They will be working directly with the residency program during their last year of medical school and then be ranked to match into the residency next year.  The program launched in 2023 and also provides a stipend to the selected students to help with medical school costs.     
Media coverage includes Carr, Berger and residency program director Dr. Rhonda Verzal.

WIFR-TV Rockford    WTVO-TV Rockford     Rock River Current       

Dr. Rhonda Verzal and the Rockford Residency Program were featured on WIFR-TV Rockford with the announcement of a new federal grant for street medicine in a cross campus collaborations with UIC Family Medicine Residency in Chicago. The University of Illinois College of Medicine will train family medicine residents to deliver tailored care to unhoused and underserved populations in low-resource, non-traditional settings in Rockford, rural northern Illinois and Chicago, thanks to a $2.5 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford Department of Family and Community Medicine, in collaboration with its counterpart in Chicago, will receive this federal funding for its Primary Care Training and Enhancement-Residency Training in Street Medicine Project over five years to train 34 family medicine residents per year in comprehensive street medicine.

Welcome home to Morrison, Dr. Trever Troutman! Fresh off residency graduation from McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Delnor he's now on staff at Morrison Community Hospital and welcoming existing and new patients of all ages. This WIXN Radio podcast reintroduces him to his hometown now as Dr. Trevel Troutman, family physician.

JoAnn Archey, MD was featured in the Sept. 23 Champaign News-Gazette for her faith and service to the community.

Whitney Lyn, MD from Cook County Health appeared live on WGN-TV Daytime Chicago on August 6th covering a range of back to school health topics.