Dr. Patricia Téllez-Girón, a leader in clinical care and medical education who is well-known in the Madison area for mentoring underrepresented students and advocating for health and health education in Dane County’s Latinx community, was recently honored with the Family Medicine Educator of the Year at the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians Annual Business Meeting at the Trade Hotel in Milwaukee.
“I am so honored to be recognized with a statewide award like this,” Téllez-Girón tells Madison365. “I have been doing a lot of mentoring of high school, pre-med and medical school students and residents throughout the years, particularly for the underrepresented students. So I think somebody thought that maybe I deserved this award and it was so wonderful to be honored.”
Téllez-Girón was honored on March 7 by the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, whose mission is to promote excellence in health care and to improve the health of the people of Wisconsin through the advancement of the art and science of family medicine.
Téllez-Girón has been with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s (SMPH) Department of Family Medicine and Community Health for 28 years now. Since 2001, Dr. Téllez-Girón has also chaired the Latino Health Council of Dane County, a collaborative network of over 40 local health organizations.
“I graduated from a residency in 2000 but even before that, I was already doing mentoring. And then I have been an associate professor with the department now for 25 years,” Téllez-Girón says. “With the Latino Health Council, I offer students the opportunity to shadow me in the clinic and community experiences and I guide them through the process of applying to medical school and residency, and support them, basically as a mother.
“I call them my pollitos (baby chicks) and I have become like the hen mother for them, so I’m always available for them, for whatever they need,” she adds, smiling.
Téllez-Girón’s clinical practice is at the Access Community Health Centers Wingra Family Medical Center on Madison’s South Side where more than 90 percent of her patients speak only Spanish. She says that many of the students she helps who are pre-med are undocumented. “Now I have a few students who are DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] students – our medical school has been taking DACA students for a few years now. We have some amazing students; they just need an opportunity,” she says.
“So we have 12 residents every year, and I’ve been there for 25 years. Twelve are just for Wingra, but we have four clinics, and then when I’m in the hospital, I get to work with residents for other clinics, too.”
At the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians Annual Business Meeting in Milwaukee where Dr. Téllez-Girón was honored, Dr. James Bigham was also recognized as the Family Physician of the Year and Dr. Barbara A. Hummel was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Téllez-Girón laughs when she recounts how she first got the great news over the phone from the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians.
“I was finishing a clinic and. seeing patients and I got this call on my cell phone. And you know how many times you get a call on your phone that is spam or something that is not good. So I wasn’t even going to take it because I didn’t recognize the number,” she remembers.
Téllez-Girón did end up taking the call but wasn’t her normal pleasant self initially, she says, expecting a spam call.
“I took the call and it ended up being the president of the organization! She told me that I won this great statewide award and, at first, I thought she was kidding. But then I started to think, ‘Oh, this is real!’ And I was so excited about it. It’s so wonderful to be honored,” she says.
Dr. Téllez-Girón is no stranger to big awards. Two years ago, UW Health honored her with a 2023 Physician Excellence Award to recognize her exceptional leadership. That same year, she also received Mexico’s Ohtli Award, the highest honor for a Mexican leader living outside of that country, in recognition of her efforts to open pathways for younger generations of Mexicans. In 2020, she was honored by Time Magazine for her efforts in the Latinx community in Dane County.
Beyond her clinical work and her community work, Téllez-Girón has become the voice for the Latino community as host of Nuestra Salud [Our Health], a monthly program on La Movida Radio, the 24/7 Spanish language radio station, where she educates and empowers the community on health matters.
“This was so nice for them to award me with this honor,” Téllez-Girón says. “For this to be a state recognition and knowing all of the great people we have in the medical professionals across Wisconsin, it truly made it special for me. It’s nice when you are recognized.”
