Javette C. Orgain for AAFP Speaker

Javette C. Orgain, MD, MPH, FAAFP has served four terms as the Vice Speaker of the American Academy of Family Physicians Congress of Delegates.

She was elected to the office of Speaker at the 2015 Congress of Delegates in Denver and re-elected on September 21, 2016 in Orlando.

At the conclusion of the 2016 AAFP Congress of delegates, the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians announced that Dr. Orgain is a 2017 candidate for the office of American Academy of Family Physicians President-Elect!

Javette C. Orgain, MD, MPH, FAAFP, a family physician in Chicago, Illinois, is Speaker of the American Academy of Family Physicians Congress of Delegates, the organization’s governing body. As speaker, Orgain serves as an officer on the AAFP Board of Directors and presides over the Congress, as it debates and establishes policy for the Academy. The AAFP represents 124,900 family physicians and medical students nationwide. As an AAFP board member, Orgain advocates on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system.

Orgain is a clinical associate professor of family medicine in the University of Illinois – Chicago Department of Family Medicine. She served as medical director at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (formerly University of Illinois at Chicago - UIC) Mile Square Health Center. She is a practicing physician with VITAS Healthcare, providing hospice and palliative care services. Orgain also serves as medical director/consultant for the Village of Park Forest Health Department. Orgain served as assistant dean of the UIC Urban Health Program from 2006-2011.

An AAFP member since 1983, Orgain served on the Commission on Governmental Advocacy from 2007 to 2011. She has also served as an Illinois delegate and alternate delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

At the state level, Orgain served on the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors from 2002 to 2010, including terms as president and board chair. She also has served on the Illinois AFP’s Government Relations Committee and chaired the Urban Health Committee. In 2003, Orgain received the Illinois AFP President’s Award for her work on the campaign for a Healthy, Smoke-Free Chicago, which called for smoke-free laws and a cigarette tax increase in Cook County. She served on the Illinois State Board of Health from 2003-2015, and was a governor-appointed member of the State Health Improvement Plan Implementation Coordination Council.

In 2016 she helped lead IAFP's efforts along with the public health community to pass another strong anti-tobacco law, this time raising the legal age to purchase any tobacco product to 21 years old. Javette stood with African-American leaders at a press conference on March 1st at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center to help secure passage of this important health issue. You can read her statement here. The ordinance passed the Chicago City Council on March 16th.

In 2000, Orgain served as the 100th president of the National Medical Association, the oldest and largest organization representing African-American physicians and health professionals in the United States. Prior to her presidency, she served two terms as vice president. She was vice-chair of the NMA Past Presidents Council from 2007 to 2012, has served as chair of the NMA House of Delegates Council on International Affairs, and also was a NMA Delegate to the United Nations. Additionally, Orgain chaired the African-American Health Care Council in Chicago from 2000 to 2011. She has served on the board of the Illinois Public Health Institute since 2013. She is the chair of the UIC Medical Alumni Council since 2014. This June 2016, she was elected to serve on the board of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago.

In 2003, Orgain was an honoree of the National Library Association/National Library of Medicine and the American Medical Women’s Association as a “Local Legend.” In 2009, she was honored as a History Maker by the University of Illinois at Chicago- Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Blacks. She received the Helen O. Dickens, MD, alumni award for distinguished service and leadership in 2014 from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine Urban Health Program as well as the Practitioner of the Year award from the National Medical Association.

She has traveled extensively to examine other health systems, including visits to China; South America; east, west and southern Africa; the Caribbean; Laos; and Myanmar. Along with two colleagues in 2009, she wrote and received funding from Rotary International for an HIV community health education and nutritional supplementation project in Mthatha, South Africa.

Orgain received her bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and her medical degree from the UIC College of Medicine. She received her master of public health degree from the UIC School of Public Health. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in UIC Cancer Educational and Career Development Program.

She has the AAFP Degree of Fellow, an earned degree awarded to family physicians for distinguished service and continuing medical education.

Blogs from Javette

Read her most recent blog post (3/31/16) on Women in Physician Leadership

Read the AAFP Leader Voices blog post about the need for physician - patient discussions on medical marijuana and recreational use as well. AAFP has resources that can help! 

Read Javette's AAFP Leader Voices blog post about her time on Capitol Hill in March advocating to her members of Congress for Medicare payment, saving Teaching Health Centers and increased Medicaid payment.