122 Leadership He entered the ACOFP board under president Dr. Edwin A. Doehring and served most of his time as secretary-treasurer. Dr. George’s sound financial management helped ACOFP grow from 8,000 to 15,000 members. ACOFP’s assets at the beginning of his tenure as treasurer were $650,000, with a rented office space of 1,200 square feet staffed by just two people. By the end of his service as treasurer, ACOFP’s assets had grown to include a $2.5 million, 20,000-square-foot building owned by ACOFP and $3.5 million invested in the bank. Dr. George saw the development of a Certificate of Added Qualification in Addiction Medicine, and he helped spearhead the drive to recertification. Credit for ACOFP’s survival through the tough financial times of the 21st century can be given to Dr. George’s visionary financial management. 1997–1998 TERRY L. NICKELS, DO, FACOFP dist. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Dr. Nickels was born in 1944 and received a bachelor of science degree at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State University) in 1968. Kirksville, Missouri, would be an important town for Dr. Nickels. It was there that he would meet both his future wife, Connie, and receive his degree in osteopathic medicine. Dr. Nickels attended the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and graduated with a DO degree in 1974. He interned at Hillcrest Osteopathic Hospital in Oklahoma City from 1974 to 1975, and after graduation established practice there. He has remained there in solo practice ever since. Dr. Nickels lists his field of professional expertise as policy development on health care, including graduate medical education and professional liability insurance. Dr. Nickels obtained much of this expertise from years of service on ACOFP committees. He was active in state government affairs in Oklahoma and served on many regulatory and advisory boards for higher education. His knowledge of governmental affairs brought him into ACOFP leadership. He was nominated as an ACOFP Fellow in 1982 and was certified the following year. He was also a founding board member of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine and active in sports medicine issues. Dr. Nickels carried on a relentless campaign to certify every practicing family physician before the year 2001, when the clinical pathway would close. As president, he expanded ACOFP’s involvement with the AOA Washington, D.C., office. He espoused a much closer relationship with the colleges of osteopathic medicine, which numbered 17 at the time. His vision was to see the production of an in-house journal that was professional enough to stand with the other specialty journals of the day. In March 1997, he would make history by having his picture on the cover of volume one of ACOFP’s Family Physician publication. Using desktop publishing techniques, this full-color journal would be produced completely in-house. The publication would be the predecessor of Osteopathic Family Physician News. The feelings of Dr. Nickels can best be summarized in a quote from his inaugural speech that was published in that journal: “We have now achieved an era of prominence in the American health care delivery system. The 21st century appears more than promising for the DO family physician.”
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