WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chief Executive Officer of Teche Action Clinic in Franklin has been elected board chair-elect of the National Association of Community Health Centers at the 41st annual Convention and Community Health Institute in San Diego, Calif.

Dr. Gary M. Wiltz was elected to the position during the conference, which draws thousands of health center professionals from coast to coast every year.

“I am both honored and humbled by the tremendous vote of support and confidence that the membership has placed in me,” Wiltz said. “Although we face challenging fiscal times, I am confident that we can work together, as we have in the past, and speak as one voice as we press forward with our mission to expand access to care in medically underserved communities across the country.”

Wiltz, a New Orleans native, received his medical school training at Tulane University School of Medicine.

While a student at Tulane, he was awarded a National Health Service Corp. scholarship.

Wiltz came to Teche Action Clinic in 1982 to serve as medical director as part of his service obligation to the NHSC and became the CEO in 2003.

Wiltz’s three-year commitment has turned into a lifetime of service to the people in the rural city of Franklin and throughout the state of Louisiana. The Louisiana Primary Care Association named him Medical Director of the Year 1994-95.

Wiltz has served on numerous health care leadership positions at the state and national level. He served as chairman of the Louisiana Primary Care Association; chaired the National Advisory Council for the NHSC and assisted the Health Care Transition teams of former Govs. Mike Foster and Kathleen Blanco.

Wiltz is also a familiar face at Capitol Hill briefings and press events, where he has educated members of Congress and their staff from a clinician’s perspective on the value of Community Health Centers and their critical role in reducing health disparities and chronic disease. He was of only 10 recipients nationally selected for the Robert Wood Johnson’s prestigious “Community Health Leadership Award.”

Founded in 1971, the National Association of Community Health Centers, or NACHC, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance and expand access to quality, community-responsive health care for America’s medically underserved and uninsured. NACHC represents the nation’s network of more than 1,250 Federally Qualified Health Centers, which serve more than 20 million people through 8,000 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. Learn more about NACHC at www.nachc.com.