President-Elect, 2023-2025
President, 2025-2027
Uniting WONCA’s family.
Bridging differences.
Increasing member engagement.
Strengthening WONCA’s resources.
Promoting health for all.
MISSION
My aim as President-elect is to unite WONCA, strengthen its global position, and engage with member organizations and regional global leaders as we advance family medicine to improve health for all
Who am I?
My name is Viviana, a name of Latin origin, meaning “Lively,” and my lifelong dedication and energy to making a lasting impact is the embodiment of that name. Family medicine is my vehicle for health and social justice. I am a community-engaged family doctor, an educator, a caretaker, and an advocate, positively impacting the communities I serve. I am a curious and avid listener and reader who pays attention to what people around me feel and do, bridging differences to move toward common goals. I am a change agent, a leader, a learner, a teacher, a mentor, a mentee, and a fierce advocate for family medicine, equity, and community health.
My 33-year career has provided multiple experiences preparing me to enact this vision and fulfill the role of President of WONCA. After graduating from a rigorous four years of family medicine training and board certification in 1996 in Iowa, USA, I started practicing family medicine in a rural town, then moved on to an urban practice, and for the last 16 years, I have been an academic family doctor at Duke, a large university health system.
My patients teach me every day about resilience, the wonders of human lives, compassion, humility, and the role I have as their dedicated doctor. In my work as Health Equity Director in the Duke Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, I maintain a complex scope of clinical practice, seeing patients for 50% of my time, and doing health equity work, research, teaching, administration, and policy during the other half of my time. My rural experience has given me an understanding of the work of rural doctors and the lives of people in rural towns. My experience as a university professor gives me the understanding of how to navigate academic challenges and politics, how to innovate a curriculum, how to educate a new generation of health professionals and incorporate their ideas in the continuous building of healthcare, how to recruit to family medicine, and how to implement innovations in family medicine. My Iberoamerican roots and work in North America- two very different WONCA regions – have taught me how to live in and appreciate different cultures and perspectives.
In the U.S., I have been active in multiple roles within the American Academy of Family Physicians, the AAFP Congress of Delegates, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Family Medicine for America’s Health, the boards of my state academies, and trustee of the North Carolina Family Physicians foundation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I played an instrumental role in developing LATIN-19, a multisectoral coalition that provided much-needed access to information, healthcare, testing, and vaccines for the most marginalized communities in the state of North Carolina. The coalition I led during the last three years has highlighted the value of family medicine and of community-engaged approaches to improving health. Because of all these experiences, I have been invited to serve on multiple local, state, national, and international boards, task forces and commissions.
Globally, you know me best through my roles in WONCA, as member of the WONCA Executive and WONCA-WHO Liaison from 2016 to 2021, past chair of the WONCA Organizational Equity Committee, an active member of several working parties and SIGs, an advocate for family medicine, a speaker at multiple conferences in different regions, and a bridge between regions of the world.
In my role as WONCA-WHO Liaison, I represented WONCA to ministries of health, global leaders, WHO regions, and non-state actors at the World Health Organization’s Executive Board and General Assembly, at the United Nations, and the Global Conference for Primary Health Care in Astana. Representing involved speaking on the best approaches for improving primary health care and writing documents and approaches to support the role of family doctors and their teams. I engaged working parties and interest group leaders in the writing of our statements to WHO, carrying the voices of family doctors and general practitioners and their organizations to inform global and local policy, and worked to increase the recognition of family doctors’teams by multiple global partners, including the signing of the landmark Memorandum of Understanding between the WHO and WONCA, which enhanced the recognition of our specialty on the global stage. My engagement in WHO, UN, WONCA regional and member organizations’ meetings, and AfroPHC have taught me a lot about the level of development of primary health care and family medicine around the world. It’s also shown me the dedication and immense knowledge of my colleagues and highlighted some opportunities for further growth and development.
My Vision for the Future of WONCA
I envision a WONCA that:
Unites member organizations to strengthen Family Medicine.
Transforms health globally by leveraging its strategic planning to implement changes and develop a business plan that will foster its growth and achievement as a global leader, while increasing member satisfaction and engagement
Sets guidelines and frameworks for family medicine/general practice education and development, promoting the training, appropriate payment, and support of a broader number of family medicine teams in every country
Promotes equity both within the organization and beyond, where every region and member organization genuinely feels heard, included, and represented. Promotes diversity including language, gender, socioeconomic, and geographic equity. Promotes respect for/and inclusion of each other.
Builds our research capacity through centralized program management and coordination support for research partnerships, grant applications, and funding, focusing on family medicine work, clinical outcomes, and workforce development.
Leads licensing and certification of many more family medicine clinical practices and training sites across the world.
Doubles its operating budget by 2030 to become more capable of its mission and vision.
Guides governments and health systems on the how, where, and when we should train family doctors and their teams, as well as the academic insertion and respect of family medicine/general practice as a required subject in medical training.
Highlights the importance of rural and urban areas with unmet needs where family medicine can be accomplished and supported.
Achieves recognition for both its global and local wisdom, channeling the amazing strengths of the clinical, academic, and research pursuits of our member organizations.
Rises higher than ever as the leading authority in primary health care policy.
Click here to read more about my vision for WONCA
What I stand for:
Click through titles to read more about each
Advocacy
With advocacy leadership that runs the gamut from community-level to worldwide, I believe in pushing for change at all levels to advance health and wellness.
Teaching
At Duke Family Medicine and Community Health, I am honored to teach and learn from many of my students residents, and colleagues across various levels, projects, and passions.
Research
A dedicated physician-teacher, I search for evidence-based ways to improve our standards of care, care delivery, and outcomes for the patients we serve.
Patient Care
Caring for people of all ages, from prenatal care to the end of life, including women health procedures, at the Duke Family Medicine Center, in Durham, North Carolina.
Family, friends and community
My family, my friends, my colleagues, my community. they all impact and transform me.
Health Equity
I believe in pursuing health equity, teaching health equity, and health equity as a personal value. Read more by clicking “health equity” above.
Get to know me
My Life by the Numbers:
30
years as a Family Doctor in urban and rural areas
17
years as a Professor at Duke University
21
years a mom
27
years a spouse
5
years liaison between WONCA and WHO
100 +
Family Medicine residents and students trained
Get to know me
Selected Awards and Recognitions:
- 2023 Named By President Biden To The President’s Council On Sports, Fitness, And Nutrition, This US advisory committee aims to promote healthy, accessible eating and physical activity, for all Americans regardless of background or ability, and provides for the work of the Council to include a focus on expanding national awareness of the importance of mental health as it pertains to physical fitness and nutrition.
- 2023 Recipient of the University of Wisconsin, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Eugene and Linda Farley Visiting Professorship Award.
- 2022 Named To The North Carolina Institute Of Medicine, Among 13 Leaders In Health Care And Public Health, Membership is intended to honor the work of leaders in health care and public health across North Carolina and to connect members with colleagues also working to advance the health of North Carolinians and the mission and values of the institute.
- 2022 Foundation For Health Leadership And Innovation Community Achievement Award, Awarded to individuals who have dedicated their careers to improving the health of communities, exemplifying these values: everyone has a right to care; care should be delivered in a respectful, efficient, and effective manner; and health care belongs to the community it serves. The award recipient has had an impact at the community, state, and federal level and is deeply respected among their peers.
- 2021 North Carolina Family Doctor Of The Year Award,, Presented by the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians. Dec 2021
- 2021 F. Marian Bishop Leadership Award, by the society of Teachers of Family Medicine Foundation – Honoring senior leaders who have significantly enhanced family medicine’s credibility by a sustained, long-term commitment to family medicine in academic settings
- 2021 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award by the Duke School of Medicine – Presented annually to a faculty member who demonstrates outstanding compassion in the delivery of care; respect for patients, their families, and healthcare colleagues; as well as showed clinical excellence.
- 2020 Featured in UNIVISION’s video. The heroes of the pandemic: “When the world is burning, I have to put out the fire.”
- 2020 Duke Presidential Award Office of the President, Duke University, 2020 – for demonstrating the values that define and shape Duke as an institution
- Click here to view all award and recognitions
Your support
My experiences to this point have given me the tools and expertise to recognize the change we need to see. I hope to bring about that much-needed change with your support.
If elected, I would be standing on the shoulders of giants, amazing champions for family medicine who preceded me in the roles of WONCA President and President-elect, and have contributed with great leadership and effort to the WONCA we know today. To each of them, my full gratitude. To Karen Flegg, Anna Stavdal, Donald Li, Amanda Howe, Michael Kidd, Rich Roberts, I am thankful for your mentorship!
Our WONCA regions are diverse, and so are our Member Organizations, The experiences, voices, resources, and challenges may be different, yet we all raise together in support of Family Medicine.
I have a deep understanding of two of these regions through my lived experiences in Iberoamerica and North America, and I have learned a lot about other regions through my role on the WONCA Executive, and travels and communication with colleagues from around the world. I will continue to learn from you, I want to hear what would help each region in their development, and what is necessary in each country to gain support for Family Medicine/General Practice.
I hope we can work together for the next four years! Vote for me at the council sessions in October 2023!
Dr. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi for WONCA President-elect 