U.S. Army Governor's Newsletter May 2026
LTC Tatjana P. Calvano, DO, FACP, MC, USA, FACP, ACP Governor
Governor's Welcome
Dear colleagues,
We celebrate so many of you and your tremendous accomplishments. I reflect on my time at the national ACP meeting in San Francisco, feeling thankful and re-energized after seeing so many of you. Thank you for serving as an inspiration to all!
You will find information below on recent awards and recognitions, national meeting highlights, welcome and congratulations to the new FACPs, chapter initiatives and information about the 2026 Tri-Service ACP meeting. As always, I am happy to hear from you, and our chapter welcomes your innovative ideas on how to optimize the value of your ACP membership.
Awards/Recognitions
National Award Recipient: COL Vincent Capaldi, National ACP Award for Distinguished Contributions to Behavioral Medicine
National ACP Resident Poster Winner: CPT Thomas Chameli, Sneaky Squeaky Sepsis: An Atypical Transmission of Leptospirosis in a Non-Endemic Setting.
2026 Gregory Argyros Army Chapter of ACP Outstanding Achievement in Internal Medicine: 2LT Khush Patel (award will be presented at the USU graduation ceremony)
We are fortunate to be surrounded by the most brilliant, accomplished colleagues. Please take the time to nominate your colleagues for our Army ACP Chapter awards. The nomination deadline is: 31 May 2026 (send your nominations to LTC Ian McInnis). You will find the award descriptions on our website.
Take the opportunity to recognize our Army Internal Medicine physicians by nominating them for the mastership in the college and for the national awards. You will find the award descriptions and the frequently asked questions about MACP and national awards at this link.
Congratulations to our new FACPs
- CPT Kathleen Holst
- MAJ Richard Camacho (photo below)
- MAJ Cesar Rosa
- LTC John McCarthy
- LTC Peter Fish
- MAJ Jim Cho
- MAJ Ian Garrigan
- MAJ Stephanie Wachs
- MAJ John Shumar
- MAJ Jonathan Vignali
- Muhammad Khawaja
- MAJ Elizabeth Doman
- MAJ Matthew Geringer
- John Hon
- MAJ Caitlin Bettger
- MAJ John Blickle
- MAJ Ariana Ramirez
- MAJ Lisa Townsend
So many of our Army chapter members are highly accomplished and deserve the honor of having FACP after their name. We would love to welcome many of you to fellowship of ACP. Please refer to the eligibility criteria and the application process for fellowship at the ACP website.
Scholarship/Research at the national ACP meeting
Many of our internal medicine residents represented our chapter by presenting their scholarly work at the national meeting. I was privileged and proud to see so many posters and to connect with our residents. Thank you for representing Army internal medicine!
Our Army winners of the 2025 Tri-Service Doctor's Dilemma competition represented our chapter at the national ACP Doctor's Dilemma competition. They won the initial round of the competition as one of the 20 out of 60 teams advancing to the semi-final round. We cheered with pride as they won the semi-final round and advanced to the finals as one of only 5 teams. Although they did not win the overall competition, we celebrate their success and congratulate them on their brilliance, gamesmanship and collaboration. It was impressive to see these 3 individuals who maintained smiles on their faces, embraced the challenge, seamlessly worked together to showcase their greatness. Congratulations BAMC Doctor's Dilemma Team! We are proud of Aitana Rizo, Paul Wortz and John Kim, as well as all their peers, mentors and leaders who invested in them and supported them throughout this process.
National ACP meeting offered much CME, in addition to the networking opportunities. It was wonderful to attend the sessions executed by our chapter members. One of the highlights of the meeting was the PREP for PrEP: Increasing Confidence and Comfort with HIV Pre Exposure Prophylaxis session conducted by Caitlin Bettger, Koree Begovic, Mary Ford and Jack Kiley. The session stimulated audience engagement and was presented at the end of the meeting as one of the highlighted, worthwhile sessions.
Dr. Lisa Townsend presented an amazing Caring for the Caregivers: Navigating Grief in Healthcare session (along with her Air Force chapter colleagues).
Chapter initiatives
We are thrilled to collaborate with the Navy and Air Force ACP chapters for the Resident and Fellow, Early Career Physician, Medical Student, Chief Resident initiatives. Our motivated members formed Tri-Service councils for those membership categories, and they have been working on multiple engagement efforts on the chapter and the national level. Please reach out to me for additional chapter initiatives and engagement opportunities.
Council of Resident and Fellow Members (CRMF)
- CRFM is hosting a sub-specialty panel for residents (rheum, cards, PCCM) at TSACP meeting; program directors from these specialties will be participating in a moderated information session (Wednesday, 26 August 2026 from 1230-1300)
- The Council will launch a quarterly case conference; first will be May 27th 1100 EST: TSACP CRFM Cardiology Case Conference
- CRFM Medical student recruitment sub-committee is working with med stud representatives for mentorship and “How to Apply to Residency” guide
- CRFM is publishing a newsletter! First newsletter is expected later this month
Council of Early Career Physicians (CECP)
- CECP is planning a session on how to mentor and be mentored as a junior physician at the 2026 Tri-Service ACP meeting
- CECP plans to conduct a question/answer (“sensing session”) regarding the needs/challenges Early Career Physicians face and how Army chapter of ACP can advocate for that membership population
- ECP Coin initiative – developing a challenge coin (see my previous message with a coin design competition information)
- ECP virtual sessions: how to maintain board certification will be the initial session, tentatively planned for June 2026 (more information and link to follow)
Tri-Service ACP 2026
Dates: August 26-28, 2026
Location: Bethesdan Hotel, Bethesda, MD
Before you know it, we will be at our Tri-Service ACP meeting in Bethesda. Please register for the meeting and book your lodging now (you will find the registration link and the accommodation link on our website.
The planning committee has been working tirelessly to bring you the highest value educational programming (meeting agenda is available at the link above). We had a record number of workshop/speaker submissions and a record number of abstract submissions for the 2026 Tri-Service meeting. Keep an eye on the announcement for late-abstract submissions opening on 01Jun2026 and closing on 13Jul2026. The planning committee is conducting selection process for the podium and poster presenters. The selected individuals should receive individual invitations to present their work at the Tri-Service ACP meeting soon. The winners of the resident podium competitions in each category and the winning Doctor's Dilemma team will have the opportunity to showcase their scholarly excellence at the 2027 National ACP Meeting in Los Angeles.
We are honored to host a senior leader panel at the meeting. We would love to hear your questions for senior leaders regarding the future of military internal medicine or any challenges you might be facing. Please e-mail those questions to MAJ Caitlin Bettger by 30 Jun 2026.
Our awards committee is looking for members to conduct selection of our 2026 Army Chapter Award recipients. If you would like to be on the awards committee, please reach out to LTC Ian McInnis by 31 May 2026.
Thank you all for everything you do for our internal medicine community. I am honored to be a part of our family!
Tatjana Calvano
Governor, Army Chapter of ACP