U.S. Air Force Governor's Newsletter June 2026
In this Issue:
- From the Governor
- Highlights of the ACP Annual Internal Medicine Meeting 2026
- Updates for the 2026 Tri-Service Annual Scientific Meeting
- Council Updates
- Chapter Members
- Member Spotlight
- Final Thoughts
Brian E. Neubauer, MD, MHPE, FACP
Col, USAF, MC, ACP Governor
From the Governor
Greetings ACP members! Spring and summer have been busy for our Chapter with the National Internal Medicine meeting in April and planning for our Tri-Service Meeting in August in Bethesda. It also has been wonderful to see the engagement from our various councils, including the Council of Early Career Physicians, the Council of Chief Residents, the Council of Resident and Fellow Members, and the Council of Medical Students. Please see brief updates from each of these councils in this newsletter. I am very grateful for the energy, enthusiasm, and leadership from our council chairs. Thank you! I also greatly appreciate the efforts of our Scientific Program/Chapter Meeting committee (Drs. Ryan Collier and Julia Timm Intili) who have been working diligently for months on our Tri-Service meeting. I wish to thank our Awards Committee (Drs. Kristen Bader, Joseph Glendening, and Matt Rendo) for all the work they did in reviewing and selecting our Chapter awards which will be announced at the Tri-Service meeting. Our Chapter is enriched greatly by the efforts and contributions of all its members.
Highlights of the ACP Annual Internal Medicine Meeting 2026
Dr. Katie Burtson (DIO, Wright Patterson) and her faculty and residents
This year's meeting was held in beautiful San Francisco, California. We had 42 members of our Chapter participate in the meeting, including 40 members in-person and 2 virtually. Five Chapter members served as faculty presenters at this event, including:
- Dr. Dylan Walker (Chief of Residents, SAUSHEC)
Dr. Walker was one of six recipients nationally of the ACP Herbert S. Waxman Chief Resident Teaching Scholarship. He served as faculty in the Clinical Skills Center, teaching diagnosis driven examination of the shoulder and knee
- Dr. Christin DeStefano (hematology/oncology program director, WRNMMC)
Faculty presenter at Meet the Professor, presenting “Procedural Bleeding Risk Assessment and Management: DOACs and Liver Disease”
- Drs. Jamie Geringer (co-site director at SAUSHEC, medicine clerkship, USUHS), Julia Timm Intili (co-site director at SAUSHEC, medicine clerkship, USUHS), and Brian Neubauer (Associate Dean, SAUSHEC; Governor, AF Chapter of ACP)
Co-presented an invited clinical workshop titled “Caring for the Caregivers: Navigating Grief in Healthcare”
This workshop was also co-presented with Dr. Lisa Townsend (APD, Internal Medicine, Tripler AMC), a member of the Army Chapter of the ACP
Several members presented posters at the meeting, including:
Dr. Nicholas Thorneloe (Hematology/Oncology fellow, SAUSHEC), “Mistaken Identity: A Case of May-Hegglin Disguised as Refractor ITP”
Dr. Rachel Cox (Chief of Residents, Wright Patterson, Chair of the Tri-Service Council of Chief Residents), “Education on Debriefing Distressing Events Improves Resident Attitudes in Debriefing”
Dr. Garet Melton (Resident, Wright Patterson), “Residents Value Interactive Peer Support and Social Engagement over Passive and Supplementary Wellness Initiatives”
Dr. Benjamin Curry (Resident, Wright Patterson), “High Value Handoffs: Teaching Residents to Communicate More with Less”
Dr. Roohali Sukhavasi (Resident, Wright Patterson), “Can Generative AI Reliably Evaluate Narrative Feedback”
Dr. Audrey Garza (Resident, Wright Patterson), “Structured, Team-based Feedback Systems Significantly Improve the Quality of Narrative Assessments”
At the Convocation Ceremony on Thursday evening, FACP Member Dr. Mark True (Col (ret), Dean and DIO of SAUSHEC) was honored for his receipt of our Chapter's Laureate award in 2024. Past Governor (Col(ret)) Dr. Angie Collamer and FACP Member Dr. Heather Yun (Col(ret)) were recognized for their selection to Mastership in the College (MACP).
Congratulations to the Chapter's Air Force Doctors Dilemma Team for their performance in the event! Drs. Rachel Pray, Cody King, and Luke Bechler from Keesler Air Force Base represented us well!
Updates for the 2026 Tri-Service Annual Scientific Meeting
This year's Tri-Service Annual Scientific Meeting will be held in Bethesda, MD at the Bethesdan Hotel on Wisconsin Avenue from 26-28 August 2026.
The Tri-Service meeting site is available on our Chapter webpage. This includes an overview, the agenda, registration link and FAQ. Attendees will be able to earn up to 18.5 CME credits by attending this meeting.
All interested in attending are encouraged to reserve a room using our pre-arranged group rate which is available here.
The late breaking abstract window is now open and will remain so until 13 Jul. This is primarily intended to allow for incoming interns to be able to submit an abstract but is open to all categories of members (medical students, residents, fellows, and early career physicians). Link to abstract portal.
All abstracts will be considered for presentation in a breakout OR poster session.
Abstract Categories:
- Basic (Bench) Research
- Clinical Research
- Quality Improvement/Patient Safety
- Clinical Vignette
- High Value Care
- Physician Well-being and Professional Fulfillment
Authors should carefully review instructions and category descriptions when selecting a category for submission. There is a 500-word limit (not including title and authors).
Council Updates
Council of Early Career Physicians
The Council of Early Career Physicians held a coin design contest! They plan to announce the winner at their breakout session at the Tri-Service ACP meeting. Their first Tri-Service ECP Meeting was held virtually on 4 Jun at 1800 and featured a presentation titled “To Test or Not to Test: Understanding the 10-Year Exam vs LKA for Board Certification”. 25 members participated in this event!
Council of Chief Residents
The Tri-Service Chief Council, in its inaugural year, is facilitating interbranch GME networking and collaboration through opening lines of communication amongst military chief residents and resource sharing. We are very much looking forward to dedicated chief resident programming at the 2026 Tri-Service Annual Scientific Meeting where rising chief residents and aspiring chief residents will gain insights from current and prior chief residents on chiefhood in military GME including considerations for unique challenges, scheduling, curriculum, and conflict resolution. We hope to establish an interbranch mentorship pipeline to foster interbranch camaraderie and professional cohesion amongst chief residents. Another goal of the council is to establish interbranch virtual synchronous sessions where chief residents can continuously share ideas and troubleshooting challenges. Tri-Service Chief Council Mission Statement: To develop ready physician leaders by delivering outstanding, integrated graduate medical education that unites Army, Navy, and Air Force trainees in clinical excellence, military readiness, and compassionate care. As a Tri-Service chief resident team, we foster a culture of collaboration, professionalism, and mutual respect; align educational systems across services; and advocate for the well-being, growth, and readiness of every resident so that we can provide world class care to service members, families, and the communities we serve.
Council of Resident and Fellow Members
This Council, chaired by Capt Elena Crouch, has been very active this year! They are currently working on releasing a newsletter and have identified participants to serve on a subspecialty panel at our upcoming Tri-Service meeting. This panel will communicate with interested residents from smaller programs about subspecialties they may not have direct access to. They are also working on developing a series of case conferences to share with all MTF's to expand learning in specific subspecialty areas of medicine. This is a great opportunity for our resident and early career physician members stationed worldwide to receive up to date educational opportunities in internal medicine. Their first session, covering topics in cardiology, was delivered in May. Members can access this session here but unfortunately it will only be available to those on a military network as it is stored on Microsoft Teams.
Council of Medical Students
The Council of Medical Students, under the co-leadership of Hannah Martinez and Kenny Nguyen, have successfully established the Council and recruited representatives from medical schools across the country. One Council member, Sirri Akaya, has created an Instagram page for the Council, which can be found at @airforcechapteracp. They hope this platform will help improve communication, recruitment, and engagement among our student members.
Current council members include:
- Kenny Nguyen (co-chair) – nguyhh@gmail.com
- Logan Ramjit – loganramjit@upike.edu
- Nicholas Lembezeder – nicholas-lembezeder@uiowa.edu
- Anton Meyer – anton.meyer@usuhs.edu
- Michael Antonino – michael.antonino@usuhs.edu
- Matthew Tajanlangit – matthew.tajanlangit@usuhs.edu
- Ian Zonfa – ian.zonfa@usuhs.edu
- Sirri Akaya – sa1968@georgetown.edu
- Justin Waldman – justwald2000@gmail.com
The medical student council is planning an upcoming meeting to discuss student attendance and participation at our upcoming Tri-Service meeting and to coordinate their volunteer and service activities that are scheduled to occur at that time.
Of note, Dr. Julia Timm Intili has kindly offered to serve as staff supervisor to help with abstracts and/or posters for any USU medical students who have rotated through BAMC Internal Medicine in the last year! For those students who have not rotated at BAMC and for our HPSP students, I am happy to help in this capacity as well!
Chapter Members
Please join me in welcoming our newest Fellows!
- Noah Jo
Noah achieved Fellowship in the College through the invited pathway. The Invited Pathway is a mechanism for ACP leaders (like current or past Governor's) to nominate highly qualified candidates who meet the requirements for advancement to Fellowship. Requirements for this pathway include:
- Board certification in Internal Medicine or Neurology
- ACP member in practice or a subspecialty fellowship for at least 3 years since the completion of residency
- Paid dues for 36 of the 48 months
- Professional activity in Internal Medicine, a combined Internal Medicine specialty, the subspecialties of Internal Medicine, or Neurology
- Active medical license in good standing
- Demonstrated activity in three of the four Pillars of Fellowship
- Continuing medical education
- Community service and engagement
- Practice improvement and scholarly improvement
- Teaching, coaching, mentoring, and leadership
The next election date for Invited Fellowship is 1 Sep 26. Deadline for applications is 1 Aug 26. If you are eligible for membership, be on the lookout for a message from me in the near future inviting you to participate.
I would also like to welcome two new members to our Chapter who transferred their memberships from other Chapters:
- Dr. Molly Boyer (APD, Internal Medicine Residency, SAUSHEC)
- Dr. Jacob Nguyen (Resident/fellow member, Keesler)
Welcome to our family!
Finally, since our last newsletter in Feb, our Chapter welcomed 11 new medical student members, one resident/fellow member, and one member. Welcome!
Member Spotlight
Noah Jo, MD
Maj, MC, USAF
Medical Director, Internal Medicine
Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic and Surgery Center
Joint Base Andrews
Dr. Jo is the Medical Director of the Internal Medicine Clinic at Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic and Surgery Center at Joint Base Andrews.
Hometown: Centreville, Virginia
Medical School: USU
Residency: SAUSHEC Internal Medicine
What I love most about medicine: The lifelong learning, the patient relationships, and the occasional diagnostic mystery that keeps things interesting… until JLV crashes.
What I enjoy doing in my free time: Cooking, traveling with my family, and being routinely out-negotiated by a preschooler.
One thing most people do not know about me: Before becoming a parent, I collected LEGO sets. Now I specialize in hiding them in places safer than classified information.
What I like about ACP: ACP offers excellent education, inspiring colleagues, and complimentary headshots (included) that document my aging process.
Final Thoughts
In closing, thank you all for your contributions to our Chapter. We continue to grow and I look forward to all the things we can accomplish over the next year. I can't wait to see many of you at the Tri-Service meeting in August. Have a safe and happy summer and as always, feel free to reach out with your thoughts, questions, and ideas!
bneubauer001@gmail.com
Yours in service,
BN
BRIAN E. NEUBAUER, MD, MHPE, FACP
Col, USAF, MC
Governor, Air Force Chapter of the ACP