Charles Alton Farmer, MD, FACEP: incoming president of SMA.

The Southern Medical Association is pleased to announce the installation of Charles Alton Farmer, MD, FACEP, as President during the 98th Annual Scientific Assembly in New Orleans in November.

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Originally from Arkansas, Dr. Farmer received his BS degree from Arkansas Tech University in 1967, and his MD degree from the University of Arkansas in 1971. He did his internship at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, then served in the US Navy as a Flight Surgeon. He returned to Tulsa for his surgery residency at the University of Oklahoma. He received his Board Certification in Emergency Medicine, is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Medicine, and is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society.

For the past 28 years, Dr. Farmer has been the Medical Director of the Emergency Department of St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and serves as Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine. He holds many distinguished positions, including Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at University of Oklahoma, Tulsa Medical College, and he is founder and president of two corporations, Eastern Oklahoma Emergency Physicians, Inc. and Regional Emergency Physicians, Inc. He serves as Medical Director for AeroCare Medical Transport, Inc., and was an original trustee of the Emergency Medical Services Authority. He serves on the Medical Control Board of the Authority, which provides ambulance care for over 2 million people. He was co-developer of one of the first urgent care centers in the United States. He was also instrumental in establishing ACLS courses in Oklahoma, serving as Affiliate Faculty for over 20 years, and president of the Northeast Oklahoma Chapter and the Oklahoma Affiliate of the American Heart Association. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Tulsa Paramedic Program.

An active member of the SMA since 1986, Dr. Farmer has been involved in many leadership roles. He has served as Chairman and Secretary of the Section for Emergency Medicine. He was associate councilor from Oklahoma during the years 1990 to 1993, and has been councilor from 1993 until the present. He has been an active participant on many coordinating committees and chaired the Committee on Special Projects and Services. He now serves as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Selections and the Presidential Committee on Endowments, and is on the Coordinating Committees on Physician Retirement, Administration and Budget, and Long-range Planning. He is the Chairman of the New Physicians Committee, and under his leadership, SMA established a Resident Advisory Committee and a Graduate Medical Education Dean's Advisory Group. An affiliation with the SGEA has also been established.

Dr. Farmer has served as President-elect of the SMA since November 2003, and is a member of the Executive Committee. Dr. Farmer is a supporter and member of the Society of 1906, which supports the Research and Education Endowment Fund.

Dr. Farmer and his wife, Sheri, are the parents of four daughters and a son. Misti and her husband, Patrick Coates, have two sons, Chase and Ben, and live in Tulsa. Joli and her husband, Dr. Todd Beasley--who is Associate Councilor from Oklahoma and Section Secretary of the Anesthesiology of SMA, and practices in Tulsa at the same hospital with Dr. Farmer--have 3 children, Joshua, Luke, and AnnaKate. Dr. Chad Farmer has finished an internal medicine residency and a fellowship in Palliative Care with a Master's in Bioethics, and is now in practice in Tampa, Florida, and is a new SMA member. Dr. Kali Farmer Cole and her husband, Dr. Scott Cole, are both in their second year in residency programs at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and are SMA members.

The Farmers enjoy traveling, particularly with their children and grandchildren, playing golf, and enhancing their culinary expertise by searching out and enjoying unique and interesting restaurants.