Eddie J. Turner Elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians

NEW ORLEANS — Eddie J. Turner, a medical student at the University of Tennessee, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The AAFP represents more than 94,300 physicians and medical students nationwide. Turner was elected to a one-year term by the New Physician Constituency at the AAFP’s National Conference of Special Constituencies in May and confirmed by the AAFP’s governing body, the Congress of Delegates.

Turner is a medical student at the University of Tennessee. He received his bachelor’s degree from Savannah State University and did graduate work in the department of biology at Fisk University, where he was named Top Graduate Student in 1998.

As a student member of the AAFP Board of Directors, Turner is responsible for representing the interests and opinions of the National Congress of Student Members to the board and the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

Turner has been involved in the AAFP as a student representative to the Commission on Legislation and Governmental Affairs and served as a student member of the board of directors of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. He was a student delegate to the Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors and served as president of the University of Tennessee’s Family Practice Student Association.

Turner was the National Medical Association Family Practice Section’s Minority Medical Student Initiative scholarship recipient in 2002. In 2001, he received the Minority Scholarship for the National Conference of Family Practice Residents and Medical Students.

While attending medical school, Turner has been very involved in his community. He is founder and director of the LeMoyne-Owen College Health Professions Mentorship Program, which is designed to mentor students who are interested in entering medical school and has served as a biology and natural science teacher for the Upward Bound after-school program for high school students.