Mississippi Physician Named New Physician Member of the American Academy of Family Physicians

SAN DIEGO – Jason Dees, D.O., a family physician from New Albany, Miss., has been elected to the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. Dees was elected to a one-year term by the New Physician Constituency during the AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies and was confirmed today by the AAFP’s governing body, the Congress of Delegates, at the organization’s annual meeting.

As the new physician member of the AAFP Board of Directors, Dees is responsible for representing the interests and opinions of the New Physician Constituency to the AAFP Board of Directors and Congress of Delegates. He also will advocate on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system.

A member of the AAFP since 2003, Dees was elected as a delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates in 2008 after serving a year as an alternate delegate. He also is active in the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians, where he was appointed to fill an unexpired term and then elected to a two-year term as a member of the board of directors of the MAFP and as a trustee of the MAFP Foundation, the charitable arm of the organization.

Dees is vice president of his family medicine practice, the New Albany Medical Group, New Albany, Miss. Outside his private practice, he is medical director for CHD Meridian at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, where he provides on-site care for work-related injuries, serves on the safety committee and develops wellness initiatives.

Dees is co-author of “Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics in Ecuador: Teaching the Teachers,” published in the July-August 2004 issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, and “Teaching Prenatal Ultrasound for Family Medicine Residents,” published in the February 2004 issue of Family Medicine.

His commitment to education includes community activities in New Albany, where Dees is vice president of the New Albany Public School Board. He recently completed a five-year tenure as a member and one-year term as chair of the College Board of Counselors at his undergraduate alma mater, Erskine College, Due West, S.C. Dees additionally has served his alma mater on the institution’s strategic planning committee.

Dees graduated from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Lewisburg, in 1999 and completed his family medicine residency at the Columbus Regional Medical Center, Columbus, Ga., in 2002. During his residency, Dees received the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Excellence in Teaching Award in 2001 and 2002. He also received the Geriatric Care Award in 2001.

He completed a fellowship in obstetrics at the Meharry Medical College in conjunction with the University of Arkansas, Jonesboro, and was named a Training in Policy Studies Fellow at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2003.

Dees also has the AAFP Degree of Fellow, an earned degree awarded to family physicians for distinguished service and continuing medical education.