David O’Gurek, MD, FAAFP, a family physician and educator in Philadelphia, has assumed the role of the 72nd president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians.

O’Gurek grew up in the anthracite coal regions or Northeastern Pennsylvania in Summit Hill. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree, graduating summa cum laude, from St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, and completed his medical studies at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society, and was one of only five students in the country to be named a Pisacano Scholar during his fourth year, the most prestigious honor given to a student entering the field of family medicine.

O’Gurek completed his residency at the Lancaster General Family Medicine Residency Program, serving as co-chief resident and later an associate director of the program.

He is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where he provides comprehensive outpatient family medicine, as well as coordinates a medication-assisted therapy program for patients with opioid use disorder.

He has recently been working with the Philadelphia Department of Health to expand MAT services in Philadelphia and to develop comprehensive and innovative strategies to address the opioid crisis.

O’Gurek also holds appointments and teaches in Temple’s Physician Assistant Program. He has served as family medicine clerkship director for the medical school and currently serves as adviser to the Family Medicine Interest Group, the Honor Board and the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

For his commitment to education, in 2016, he was awarded the PAFP’s Exemplary Teaching Award and was also a winner of the LKSOM’s Golden Apple Teaching Award in 2017.

An engaged member of the PAFP and the AAFP since his student days, O’Gurek recently served as chair of the AAFP’s Commission on Health of the Public and Science, having served on the commission for four years previously and playing numerous roles for the academy, including co-authoring several of the academy’s position papers and representing the academy at the Institute for Medicaid Intervention and the Institute for Medicine. In this capacity, he chaired the AAFP’s Workgroup on Primary Care and Public Integration. He has served on the AAFP’s Commission on Membership and Member Services as a resident and the Commission on Governmental Advocacy as a student.

Within the PAFP, O’Gurek chaired the Government and Practice Advocacy Committee, serving on the committee dating back to his student days. He also served as resident board member and chair of the Resident Assembly.

As president, O’Gurek will act as the PAFP’s spokesman and the face of the family physician community to local, state and national media. He will be responsible for appointing all standing and special commissions and committees.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and its Foundation supports its members (including nearly 80 percent of Pennsylvania family physicians) through advocacy and education to ensure a patient-centered medical home for every Pennsylvanian. The academy and its foundation are the leading influential resource among family physicians and physicians in training in Pennsylvania; the voice of family medicine with state legislative and administrative branches of government, media and professional health organizations; and the leader on health care issues in the community.