Institute for Family Health Chief Medical Information Officer to Serve as AAFP President

New York, NY (October 7, 2025) – Sarah Nosal, MD, FAAFP, the Institute for Family Health’s Chief Medical Information Officer and Vice President for Innovation and Optimization, yesterday assumed the role of president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The AAFP represents over 128,000 family physicians, residents and medical students nationwide.

“Community has always been at the heart of family medicine. That connection is what makes family medicine so powerful,” said Dr. Nosal in a statement. “When I think about the care I am providing to my patients, or when I think about the advocacy we are doing on the state and national level…that’s the place where we are all going to grow. That’s where family physicians are pushing ourselves, in every way, to go a little bit further than where we have been before.”

Dr. Nosal has spent over two decades practicing family medicine in the South Bronx. After graduating from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she completed her residency in Urban Family Practice at Beth Israel Medical Center and the Institute for Family Health. Since then, she has practiced at the Institute for Family Health’s Urban Horizons Family Health Center, consistently achieving top metrics in clinical quality while also assuming various leadership positions. She currently serves as the Institute for Family Health’s Chief Medical Information Officer and the Vice President for Innovation and Optimization.

Under Dr. Nosal’s leadership, the Institute has become a leader in ensuring equitable access to health information technology tools. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Nosal was instrumental in shaping the Institute’s response, including the roll-out of comprehensive telehealth services. She also currently serves as Co-Medical Director of the ECHO Clinic, a long-time collaboration between the Institute and Einstein to provide accessible health care to uninsured individuals while training the next generation of physicians.

“Dr. Nosal is unique in her ability to marry her physician skills and her acumen about what it means to utilize the electronic medical record, and leverage that into how we provide care to patients. She is a unicorn in that respect,” said Dr. Eric Gayle, MD, FAAFP, President and CEO of the Institute for Family Health.

A member of the AAFP since 2004, Dr. Nosal has served as chair of the AAFP Commission on Membership and Member Services and chair of the commission’s Special Constituencies Subcommittee. She was also the lead member in the awards discussion of the AAFP Commission on Membership & Membership Services. In 2014, Dr. Nosal served as convener of the National Conference of Special Constituencies. Dr. Nosal’s earliest New York State Academy of Family Physicians (NYSAFP) role was as resident delegate to the NYSAFP Congress of Delegates. She subsequently served on the NYSAFP Board of Directors in numerous roles, including as president of the state academy and most recently as NYSAFP delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates.

“Dr. Nosal is dedicated, strong,” said Dr. Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, former president of the AAFP. “Her core being is about ‘How do I make this inequity more balanced?’”

Dr. Nosal is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine. She also holds the AAFP Degree of Fellow, an earned degree awarded to family physicians for distinguished service and continuing medical education.

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The Institute for Family Health is a federally qualified health center network in New York State serving 100,000 patients annually. Services are available to people of all ages, regardless of ability to pay.

Updated October 9, 2025: Read Dr. Sarah Nosal’s inaugural speech and watch the AAFP’s video about her.