Longtime family doc finds purpose in teaching and leadership
Jan. 22, 2026, David Mitchell — John Brady, MD, FAAFP, wasn’t ready to retire after two decades as a solo practice owner—and nearly 30 years in practice—but he knew he needed a change.
“I felt like my energy to do that was starting to wane a bit,” Brady said. “I had accepted residents into the practice regularly to try and teach them about practice management, and I knew that whenever I had residents in the practice it rejuvenated me. It gave me excitement about how interested they were in family medicine and what I was doing, and so I was hopeful that by transitioning into academia I might be able to continue to influence the next generation of family physicians. It reminded me of my purpose.”
Brady closed his practice in Newport News, Virginia, in 2023 and became an associate director of the Virginia Commonwealth University-Riverside Family Medicine Residency. He has received Excellence in Family Medicine Teaching awards from the program’s residents the past two years.
Success doesn’t mean the transition was easy.
“If you’ve ever started a practice and kept it going for a long time, it’s kind of like your child,” Brady said. “It was a difficult decision to make, but I feel like it was necessary.”
Lessons in family medicine leadership
Brady started his career as a staff physician at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. An Air Force Health Professions Scholarship had paid for schooling at the Medical University of South Carolina, so Brady owed the military a four-year commitment after finishing family medicine residency in Greenville, South Carolina.
“I had a wonderful experience,” said Brady, who was a medical director of an Air Force satellite clinic. “That allowed me to understand how the back end of the clinic runs and how we can see patients in different ways, which allowed me to challenge some of my previously held beliefs about what’s necessary in a practice. That helped me a lot in thinking about transitioning to my own solo practice.”
Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment online CME
The military also provided leadership training, which Brady put to good use in organized medicine. He served on the board of the Virginia AFP from 2010-13 and on the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) board from 2015 to 2022. Due to the pandemic, his term included two years as chair.
Brady’s time on the ABFM board coincided with the organization’s piloting and adoption of the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment, which allows family physicians to answer 25 questions each quarter in open-book format in their home or office as an alternative to a high-stakes, one-day exam at a testing site.
“It was uncertain how positive the response was going to be,” he said, “but people love it. They would much rather take the exam home and do 25 questions a quarter and learn from it, as opposed to going to a testing center and getting it all done in a day but really not remembering much of it after you leave. It ended up being a transformative event in ABFM history, and being a part of that was great.”
Advancing brain health
Brady serves on the Virginia Governor’s Task Force on Primary Care and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s Professionalism Task Force. Since 2022, he has brought a family medicine perspective to the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, which is focused on supporting research related to cognitive decline and memory loss.
“It’s a wonderful organization with a mission that is looking at trying to understand and alleviate the questions surrounding cognitive aging,” he said. “The board decided having a primary care physician on the board would be would be helpful. Family physicians should be the first line the patients go to when they’re worried about their cognitive health.”
Why becoming a leader matters
Brady, who has been an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School since 2000, encourages learners and family docs to get involved in leadership.
Brain health: Clinical guidance and practice resources
AAFP brain health resources for members include free CME, screening recommendations, practice tools and patient information on topics related to dementia, stroke, traumatic brain injury and more.
“Frontline family medicine can be challenging, and the demands continue to evolve,” he said. “Being involved in leadership, whether it’s at the at the local, state or national level, is essential because it gives you perspective on the bigger picture. It also allows you to affect things, which then gives you a purpose and can help to motivate you and keep you happy in what you’re doing.
“Prior to serving on the ABFM board, I was constantly frustrated with the way things were going and felt helpless at times. As I got into leadership, I started hearing other perspectives about what the future of family medicine could look like. It was inspiring to me.”
The key, Brady said, is to identify your passions.
“The AAFP has plenty of groups you can join where you can let your passions go, learn more and try and effect change,” he said. “We certainly need voices now as much as ever to try and improve our specialty, and bring it into the next decade.”