Meet Our New Board Members

Alexis T. Mason, M.D.
Secretary-Treasurer

Alexis T. Mason, M.D., is a native of Town Creek, Ala., and was elected Secretary-Treasurer during the Association’s Annual Meeting in April. It was a lawnmower accident when she was just 3 years old, which nearly took a limb and ended her life, that led her to her life’s calling of practicing medicine.

A graduate of Alabama A&M University, Dr. Mason went on to the Rural Medical Scholars Program at the University of Alabama where she received her Masters in Human and Environmental Science in 2008, which propelled her into the University of Alabama School of Medicine where she received her medical degree in 2012. She completed her residency at the University of Tennessee Family Medicine program in Jackson, Tenn., and her fellowship in Behavioral Medicine at the University of Alabama.

She is now practicing in Gordo, AL with Whatley Health Services as well as assisting with the SMART Clinic in Aliceville, Ala. After only two years in rural practice, she has become a favored preceptor for students entering the rural medicine pipeline and active in the AAFP.

Jane A. Weida, M.D., FAAFP
7th District Censor

Dr. Jane Weida is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and associate director of the College’s Family Medicine Residency. She received her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College and completed her family medicine residency at Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia. After 13 years in private practice in Blue Bell, Pa., she spent six years as faculty at Penn State College of Medicine before joining an affiliated community-based family medicine residency in West Reading, Pa. There, she taught residents and medical students and served as the medical director, clerkship director and co-director of the residency’s Global Health Track.

Dr. Weida is active in several professional organizations. She is the immediate past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, where she developed the organization’s signature humanitarian program in Haiti. She is committed to residency education, medical student interest in family medicine, and global health and has traveled extensively to provide family medicine education in Haiti and many former Soviet Republics in Asia and Europe.

Jay Suggs, M.D.
Place No. 5 Representative

When Alabama native, W. Jay Suggs, M.D., FACS, FASMBS, returned home after his general surgery training at the Mayo Clinic and bariatric surgery fellowship at Princeton, NJ, he started his first bariatric surgery Center of Excellence in Decatur. He also practices in Huntsville and Madison. Dr. Suggs is a board-certified surgeon and is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a fellow of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. He has degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Emory University and his medical degree from UAB. Dr. Suggs, together with his wife and three daughters, live in Decatur where they are an active part of their community.

Dr. Suggs has special interests in medical education and research, serving as an associate professor of surgery at the UAB Huntsville Regional Campus, as well as the director for the Huntsville campus of the ACOM and VCOM-Auburn medical schools. He has been involved in the leadership of multiple professional organizations and hospitals.