Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP, associate professor and director of community engagement in the Duke Department of Duke Family Medicine and Community Health, was inaugurated as president of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) at its World Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, held Sept. 17–21, 2025.
Elected in 2023 , Martinez-Bianchi is the first person from Latin America and the first woman from the Americas to hold this office. “This is a moment of history,” she said. “I hope this moment reminds younger colleagues — especially women and those from underrepresented regions — that they belong here, their voices matter, and their leadership shapes the future of global family medicine.”
In her two-year term, she aims to strengthen family medicine globally, promote health equity, expand WONCA’s research capacity, and guide governments on training family doctors. She envisions transforming WONCA into a leading authority in primary health care policy, especially for underserved communities.
An educator and physician with more than 30 years of experience, Martinez-Bianchi has held leadership roles in the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and she has served as a liaison to the World Health Organization. She also helped launch LATIN-19, a coalition that expanded access to health care and vaccines for marginalized communities in North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her activism is rooted in her work as a family doctor. “Family medicine activism is born from proximity,” she said. “We stand with people across their lifetimes — from birth to old age — and we see, intimately, how social and political structures determine their ability to thrive. This unique vantage point makes family doctors both healers and witnesses, caregivers and catalysts.”
She added, “To be a family medicine activist is to bring the power of primary care into the public square. It means amplifying community voices in policy discussions, defending health equity as a core human right, and fighting for systems that support—not neglect—the most vulnerable.”
Read her first column as president.