The National Conferences’ Named Lectures
Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Lee Burnett, DO, FAAFP

The Coastal Research Group has sought to honor major intellectual leaders in the Family and Community Medicine movements. Typically, each of the National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access has one of three named lectures associated with the conference. One honors G. Gayle Stephens, MD, one honors the late Charles E. Odegaard, Ph.D. and the third honors J. Jerry Rodos, DO. The lecturers in each series include many eminent figures in these movements.
The National Conferences have established named lecture series to honor three colleagues who have achieved prominence in their professional careers, and have additionally made significant contributions to the National Conferences.
The G. Gayle Stephens Lectures (established in 1991) center on reforms in the practice of medicine and health care.
Doctor Neal Palafox of the University of Hawai’i will be the 29th G. Gayle Stephens Leccturer.
The previous Stephens Lecturers have been Doctors Marc Babitz of the Utah Department of Health; Macaran Baird, MD, MS, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-Saint Paul; Alfred O. Berg of the University of Washington; F. Marian Bishop of the University of Utah; Lynn Carmichael of the University of Miami; Patrick T. Dowling of the University of California, Los Angeles; Rick Flinders of Sutter Health, Santa Rosa, California; Joshua Freeman of the Kansas University Medical School, Kansas City; Donald Frey of Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska; John Geyman of the University of Washington; Ronald Goldschmidt of the University of California, San Francisco; Larry Green of the American Academy of Family Physicians; James Herman, of the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa; Thomas Hines of Boston University; Cornelius Hopper, Vice President Emeritus for Health Affairs for the University of California Systemwide; Gary LeRoy of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio; Norman B. Kahn, Jr., Vice President, American Academy of Family Physicians; Samuel C. Matheny of the University of Kentucky, Lexington; John E. Midtling of the University of Tennessee Memphis; Charles E. Odegaard of the University of Washington; James A. Puffer, MD, of the American Board of Family Medicine; Perry A. Pugno, MD, of the American Academy of Family Physicians; David Satcher, United States Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General; John Saultz, of the Oregon Health Sciences University; Joseph E. Scherger of University of California San Diego; David N. Sundwall, MD, MPH, of the State of Utah Department of Public Health; G. Gayle Stephens of the University of Alabama, Birmingham; and Paul R. Young of the American Board of Family Medicine.
The Charles E. Odegaard Lectures (established in 1994) center on reforms in academic medical centers and the decentralization of medical education from the academic medical centers into the nation’s rural and underserved areas.
Doctor Donald Frey of Creighton University, will be the 26th Charles E. Odegaard Lecturer.
The previous Odegaard Lecturers have been Doctors Suzanne Allen of the University of Washington’s WWAMI program (Boise, Idaho center); Macaran A. Baird of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Gerard Clancy, President, Oklahoma University, Tulsa campus; Mark E. Clasen of Wright State University; Richard Clover of the University of Louisville; Peter Coggan of Michigan State University Emeritus; Hector Flores of the White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles; Joshua Freeman, MD of the Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City; Sim Galazka, of the University of Virginia; John Geyman, of the University of Washington; James Herman of Penn State University Milton Hershey School of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania; Thomas Hines of Boston Medical Center, Boston University; Cornelius Hopper, Vice President for Health Affairs, University of California Systemwide; Norman B. Kahn of the American Academy of Family Physicians; Peter V. Lee of the University of Southern California; David Marsland of the Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia; Patricia Matthews-Juarez of Meharry Medical School; Daniel Ostegaard of the American Association of Family Physicians; Charles Q. North of the University of New Mexico; Neal Palafox, of the University of Hawai’i, Mililani; Perry A. Pugno of the American Academy of Family Physicians; J. Jerry Rodos of Midwestern University; Joseph E. Scherger of the Eisenhower Medical Center, Indian Wells, California and Emery Wilson of the University of Kentucky, Lexington.
The J. Jerry Rodos Lectures (established in 1995) center on the subjects of community-based medical education and practice and the amelioration of health care disparities.
Doctor Joshua Freeman, Kansas University Medical Center Emeritus, is the be the 25th Rodos Lecturer.
The previous Rodos Lecturers have been Doctors Thomas W. Allen of the Oklahoma State University-College of Osteopathic Medicine and Marc E. Babitz of the University of Utah; Bruce Behringer of East Tennessee State University; and Doctors Richard Clover of the University of Louisville; Gayle Dine’Chacon, University of New Mexico Center for Native American Health, Albuquerque; Roxanne Fahrenwald of Montana Family Medicine; Hector Flores of White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles; John Geyman, MD, University of Washington, Emeritus; Count D. Gibson, Jr. of Stanford University; Charles E. Henley, of Marian University, Indianapolis, Indiana; James Herman, MD, Penn State University Milton B. Hershey Medical School, Hershey, Pennsylvania; Sandral Hullett of Cooper Green Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama; Norman B. Kahn, Jr., of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, Chicago; Mitchell Kasovac, DO, of the A T Still University, Mesa, Arizona; Gary LeRoy of the West Dayton Community Health Center and Wright State University, Dayton; Robert K. Maudlin of Providence Health Care, Spokane, Washington; Kenneth Moritsugu, Deputy Surgeon General, Bethesda, Maryland; Charles Q. North, MD, MS, of the Indian Health Service, Albuquerque; Neal A. Palafox of the University of Hawai’i, Mililani; Michael Prislin of the University of California, Irvine; Robert Ross of the Oregon Health Sciences University/Cascades East Family Medicine, Klamath Falls, Oregon; Frederic Schwartz, A. T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine of Arizona, Mesa; David Sundwall, former Director of the Utah Department of Public Health; and Jonathan Weisbuch, former Director of the Maricopa County/Phoenix Department of Public Health.