Media Center Main Page

Carolyn Lopez Re-Elected Speaker of the American Academy of Family Physicians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Contact:
Amanda Denning
American Academy of Family Physicians
(800) 274-2237, Ext. 5223
adenning@aafp.org

NEW ORLEANS — Carolyn C. Lopez, M.D., a family physician in Chicago, Ill., has been re-elected speaker of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) governing body, the Congress of Delegates, and will continue to serve on the Academy’s board of directors. She has served as speaker for one year and vice speaker for three years. The AAFP represents more than 94,300 physicians and medical students nationwide.

Lopez is chair of the Department of Family Practice at John Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) in Chicago. In addition, she is associate professor at Rush Medical College’s Department of Family Medicine. She is also a Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois trustee and is on the Board of Governors for the Institute of Medicine of Chicago.

A member of the AAFP since 1981, Lopez has served the profession in a variety of roles, including serving on the Academy’s Commission of Public Health, the Commission on Public Health and Scientific Activities, the Committee on New Physicians and the Committee on Minority Health Affairs. Lopez is a past president of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and has been named to Who’s Who in the Midwest and Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders.

Lopez earned her undergraduate degree from Loyola University in Chicago. She received her medical degree from the University of Illinois’ Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine in 1978, and was later named a distinguished alumnus of the school’s Urban Health Program. She completed a family practice residency at Rush-Christ Family Practice in Chicago. Her leadership in health care earned Lopez a commendation from the Cook County Board of Commissioners. She is board certified by the American Board of Family Practice and is an AAFP Fellow, an earned degree awarded to family physicians for distinguished service and continuing medical education.

# # #

Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Nearly one in four of all office visits are made to family physicians. That is 215 million office visits each year – nearly 48 million more than the next medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for America’s underserved and rural populations.

In the increasingly fragmented world of health care where many medical specialties limit their practice to a particular organ, disease, age or sex, family physicians are dedicated to treating the whole person across the full spectrum of ages. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.

To learn more about the American Academy of Family Physicians and about the specialty of family medicine, please visit www.aafp.org.

For more information about the AAFP's positions on issues and clinical care and downloadable multi-media on family medicine and health care, visit the AAFP Media Center.

For more information about health care, health conditions, and wellness, please visit familydoctor.org.