Texas Medical Association 2019 Fall Conference at Hyatt Lost Pines Resort. Corporate event photography by Austin Photographer Matthew Lemke.
Preston Hollow resident and Baylor University Medical Center doctor Deborah Fuller received the 2023 Young at Heart award from the Texas Medical Association‘s Young Physicians Section (TMA physicians under age 40 or in their first eight years of medical practice). The group selected Fuller for her support and mentorship of young physicians, according to an announcement.
The section’s Chair-Elect, Emma L. Dishner, MD, who nominated Fuller for the award, says she greatly appreciates the physician’s fun-loving personality.
“One only needs to see her elaborately themed TMA Foundation Gala outfits to realize this lady is fun!” she said, referring to the costumes the physician typically wears to an annual philanthropic fundraiser.
Dishner added that Fuller has been a “wonderful role model and mentor.”
As president-elect of the Dallas County Medical Society and a TMA leader, Fuller has modeled physician leadership to young doctors like Dishner, who is a Dallas infectious diseases specialist.
Fuller said she is “honored and blessed” to receive the award, “from the top of my ‘young at heart’ head to the tips of my ‘young at heart’ toes,” she added.
“This award will always remind me that the advocacy centered around organized medicine is important to all generations of physicians,” Fuller said. “The torch we pass on is in great hands with our young physicians at TMA.”
Fuller, an attending physician at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, is also an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Texas A&M University Medical School.
In addition to her DCMS presidency, Fuller served as the board of directors’ secretary/treasurer, on the TMA Council on Member Experience, the Ad Hoc Committee on Independent Physician Practice and the TMA Women Physicians Section.
She also is engaged in advocacy, chairing the DCMS political action committee and serving as district vice chair for TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee.
Dr. Dishner said Fuller has spent additional time to help mentor her in the Dallas County Medical Society and TMA
“She is encouraging and dedicated to her roles and going above and beyond the call to show young physicians – especially young women physicians – to advocate for themselves. I can think of no better physician to be awarded the Young at Heart award.”
