HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has announced the appointment of eight health care professionals to serve on the Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry.  Seven new members will serve two-year terms, and one member a one-year term. 
 
Members serving until September 2007 are: 
 

• Diego Chaves-Gnecco, M.D., M.P.H., pediatric resident, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Penn.;
  
  
• William Alton Curry, M.D., F.A.C.P., associate dean for primary care and rural health and professor of medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Ala.;
  
  
• Katherine A. Flores, M.D., family practice physician, Latino Center for Medical Educational Research and California Area Health Education Center, Fresno, Calif.;
  
  
• Joseph A. Leming, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., family practice physician, Colonial Heights, Va.;
  
  
• Perri Morgan, P.A.-C., M.S., academic coordinator, University of Wisconsin Physician Assistant Program, Madison, Wis.;
  
  
• Lauren L. Patton, D.D.S., associate professor, University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, Chapel Hill, N.C; and
  
  
• Surendra K. Varma, M.D., professor and vice chair of pediatrics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.

The new member serving until September 2006 is Karen Ann Krupala Gunter, physician assistant student, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
 
The 23-member committee advises the HHS Secretary and Congress on a wide range of policy and program issues in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, dentistry, and physician assistant programs.  The Advisory Committee meets three times a year.
 
HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration provides executive and staffing support to the Advisory Committee.  For more information on the Committee, visit http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/medicine-dentistry/actpcmd/.
 
For more information on HRSA’s primary care medicine and dentistry and other health professions programs, visit www.bhpr.hrsa.gov.