TTUHSC School of Medicine Faculty Member Elected to the Texas Medical Association Board of Trustees

• By Meaghan Collier
• May 20, 2024
• Education

The Texas Medical Association (TMA) elected Rodney Young, M.D., to the TMA Board of Trustees during TexMed 2024, its annual conference in Dallas. Along with other elected leaders, Young will help shape and implement TMA policies and deliberate various health care issues that impact the health and lives of Texans. Young is believed to be the first Amarillo physician to serve on the TMA board. 

“I’m especially proud to be the first known physician from the Panhandle to serve on TMA’s board of trustees,” Young said. “It takes many years of time and commitment within the organization to gain the trust of your colleagues from around the state needed to be elected to the board. That’s a challenging proposition for physicians from places like Amarillo that are so far from Austin.”

Young is a professor and regional chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine on the regional campus in Amarillo. He is a family medicine physician at Texas Tech Physicians Family Medicine. 

Young joined TMA nearly 30 years ago as a medical student. A recent member of TMA’s Council on Science and Public Health, Young has chaired multiple councils and committees at TMA including the Council on Socioeconomics, Council on Medical Education and the Committee on Continuing Education. 

“America has some of the best doctors, hospitals and health care services on the planet, but we also have a health care system that is confusing, fragmented, expensive and out of reach for too many,” he said. “It’s important that physicians from all specialties work together to advocate for improvements in that system for our practices, our patients, their families and for our communities. TMA offers a strong voice where physicians across disciplines come together to make those things happen. We need physicians from across the state – not just in the largest metro areas– to have a seat at that table.”

TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 57,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 110 component county medical societies around the state.  

“With both myself and Cynthia Jumper, M.D., from TTUHSC in Lubbock now serving on the board of trustees, West Texans have a clear voice in crafting and implementing those policies to effect positive changes for all of us,” Young said.

Young graduated from the TTUHSC School of Medicine in 1997 and completed his family medicine residency in Lubbock in 2000. He then joined the faculty of the Department of Family and Community Medicine in Amarillo so he could continue to teach while building his medical practice within the school. He was named the Amarillo campus interim regional department chair in 2003 and the permanent regional department chair the following year.

During his career, Young has earned several honors and awards, including the Texas Academy of Family Physicians 2018 Texas Family Physician of the Year, Texas Medical Association’s Gold Award for Excellence in Academic Medicine and the TTUHSC School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Young maintains a busy clinical practice and prioritizes his time with patients. 

Outside the TTUHSC campus, he serves on the Heal the City Free Clinic Board of Directors and the Amarillo Hospital District Board of Managers; he has also served on the Harrington Cancer and Health Foundation Board of Directors. He is a past president of the Potter-Randall County Medical Society and continues to serve on its Board of Directors.

“I’m very grateful to TTUHSC for having the foresight over the years to allow me and several others to be there to advocate for West Texas and its smaller communities and to the Potter-Randall County Medical Society for their many years of unwavering support,” he said.