his Harris County Medical Society (HCMS) presidency. “I am confident in our leaders, our
staff, and all members of the TMA who given any challenge, we will re- spond accordingly and be successful.”
Dr. Garcia stressed that organized
medicine must support its vision — to protect the patient-physician relation- ship and improve Texans’ health care
— which TMA has worked so hard to achieve throughout the years.
“By standing together … each of us
will succeed individually if we work collectively as a cohesive body of professionals to the benefit of our pa- tients,” he said. “We are not ‘providers.’ … We are healers. We are physicians.” Dr. Garcia said he loves caring for his patients. “I can’t think of a more stately, wor-
thy cause than to care for another hu- man being — and that is the patient- doctor relationship,” he said. “Serving my patients and saving their lives is something I dreamed about when I was a kid. And that’s what we’re about; TMA is all about protecting that doctor-patient relationship.” Dr. Garcia has dedicated more than
Raghuveer Puttagunta, immediate past chair of the TMA Medical Student Section, presented the Student of the Year Award to Kayla Riggs. Ms. Riggs is a student at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Among her accomplishments, she was able to recruit the most students across the state to the American Medical Association.
30 years to leadership in organized medicine. He has served as chair of the TMA Board of Trustees; chair of TMA’s Committee on Cardiovascular Diseases; and president of the TMA Foundation, the association’s philan- thropic arm. In addition, he has been a member of TMA’s House of Dele- gates since 1995 and a district chair of TEXPAC. Dr. Garcia also has served on
TMA’s Council on Legislation and Border Health Caucus. Over the years, he has advocated for improving Tex- ans’ health by testifying before the Texas Legislature and meeting with lawmakers in Washington, D.C. In Houston, in addition to serving
as HCMS president in 2008, Dr. Gar- cia served in numerous HCMS lead- ership positions, including chair of its delegation to TMA from 1999 to 2001. He serves on the boards of the Texas Medical Center and the Gulf Coast Re- gional Blood Center. On the national level, Dr. Garcia
Ernest Butler, MD, and his wife, Sarah Butler, left, bestow the 2015 TMA Ernest and Sarah Butler Awards for Excellence in Science Teaching on three outstanding Texas science teachers. Elementary school honoree Patricia Kassir, left, teaches third through fifth grades at the Bendwood School in Houston; middle school honoree Joseph Morris teaches seventh-grade life science at All Saints Episcopal School in Fort Worth; and high school honoree Anna Loonam teaches AP biology at Bellaire High School in Houston. Winners each receive $5,000 plus a $2,000 resource award for their school’s science department thanks to an endowment established by Dr. and Mrs. Butler and additional gifts from physicians and their families.
18 TEXAS MEDICINE July 2015
has served as a TMA delegate to the American Medical Association House of Delegates since 1998. He also served on the AMA Special Advisory Group Extraordinaire in 2002. Dr. Garcia is a native of Alice, Texas,
and a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of sci- ence degree in pharmacy. He received his medical degree from the Universi-
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