Russell W. Kohl, MD, FAAFP
Candidate for president-elect
Russell W. Kohl, MD, FAAFP
Personal statement
Family physicians go where others will not, to provide the care that others cannot. That calling has never been more important—but family physicians today are being asked to care for patients in a system that too often works against the very things our specialty does best: continuity, comprehensiveness, trusted relationships and clear, evidence-based guidance.
The concerns I hear from family physicians reflect the same deeper problem: outside decisions intruding into the exam room, distrust of science undermining evidence-based recommendations and practices consolidating into corporations that make decisions far from the communities we serve. Rapid changes in technology and generational shifts in expectations are simultaneously reshaping how care is delivered and patients’ experiences. Whether in my solo first practice, as rural residency faculty or on the streets of Kansas City caring for our most vulnerable neighbors, I’ve experienced these growing challenges.
These forces all point to the same essential question: will future family physicians be empowered to comprehensively care for patients, inform them honestly and build the relationships that make our specialty indispensable? I believe the answer is yes—but only if we are clear about what must endure and courageous about what must change.
Patients do not live their lives in fragments, and family medicine cannot flourish when reduced to transactions. In a world that feels more complex and more impersonal, patients need physicians who can see the whole person, apply science with judgment and help navigate difficult choices in a complex system. That is the enduring value of family medicine, and the future we must secure.
The AAFP has an essential role in that work. We must defend the physician-patient relationship, support evidence-based care, confront administrative barriers that make good doctoring harder and ensure that new technologies strengthen, rather than diminish, the family physician's role. We must speak clearly when forces—inside or outside medicine—make it harder for family physicians to meet their patients' needs.
The Academy must also remain a broad and welcoming home for our specialty. There are many ways to practice family medicine, and that diversity is one of our greatest strengths. But our differences must never become more important than the shared identity that binds us together and we must not surrender our specialty to fragmentation. We are strongest when we are clear about what family medicine needs to flourish and are willing to defend it together.
I am running because I believe that family medicine still has the power to shape what comes next. Patients need family physicians who provide continuous, comprehensive, relationship-based care and help them navigate complexity with honesty and trust. Family physicians need an Academy that is clear about what our specialty requires, bold in defending it, and broad enough to remain a home for every one of us.
That is the leadership I hope to bring: grounded in the enduring purpose and promise of our specialty, confident in its future and committed to helping family medicine shape what comes next.
Russell Kohl, MD, FAAFP, is a family physician and national leader known for connecting the voices of family physicians to meaningful action at every level of the Academy.
Dr. Kohl brings a broad perspective to leadership, shaped by a career that began as a firefighter/EMT with the Oklahoma City Fire Department, then medical school and family medicine residency at the University of Oklahoma, interrupted by a two-year mobilization to Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon. His professional practice experience has included full-scope rural solo practice, academic medicine, national quality improvement work and a street medicine practice serving individuals experiencing homelessness in the Kansas City metro area, where he precepts and mentors medical students from three different medical schools in the community. He currently serves as chief medical officer for TMF Health Quality Institute and as the Air National Guard Assistant to the National Guard Bureau Joint Surgeon General.
A member of the AAFP since 1998, Dr. Kohl began his Academy leadership journey as a student alternate delegate to the Congress of Delegates and has remained deeply engaged in organized medicine ever since. His service includes 16 years of leadership within the Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians, including serving as president, as well as service on multiple AAFP commissions, as a National Conference of Constituency Leaders co-convener, new physician member of the Board, chair of the AAFP Commission on Finance and Insurance, and vice speaker and speaker of the Congress of Delegates. In these roles, he has worked with family physicians from across the country to help ensure that member perspectives meaningfully shape the Academy’s direction, while supporting governance that is transparent, responsive and grounded in the realities that family physicians face every day.
The father of two now-grown Eagle Scouts, Russell spent nearly a decade as a scoutmaster, including serving as the inaugural scoutmaster of Kansas City’s first linked male and female scout troop. Outside of medicine and service, he enjoys sailing, working on old cars, spending time outdoors and spending time with his wife of more than 25 years, an enthusiastic crafter whose current creative pursuits include 3-D printing and crochet.
Known for a leadership style that is collaborative, steady and mission-driven, Dr. Kohl brings a practical understanding of the challenges facing family physicians today—from practice sustainability and administrative burden to workforce pressures, payment and the evolving demands of patient care. Across each of his roles, he has remained grounded in the belief that effective leadership begins with listening and requires translating member priorities into clear, actionable results.