UAFP 2025 Congress of Delegate Elections

Ballots will be mailed to UAFP active and resident members on Monday, March 3, 2025 at 8:00am. Voting will remain open for two weeks and will close on Monday, March 17, 2025 at 5:00pm.

There are two candidates for two delegate positions. Please rank the candidates in order of your preference. The candidate with the highest vote tally will serve as delegate and the candidate with the second highest vote tally will serve as alternate delegate.

If you do not receive a ballot or have questions about the election, please contact us.

Meet the Candidates

Theadora Sakata, MD

"Sometimes, the question has to fit the answer rather than the other way around. I learned this from mathematical ecologist Dick Levins when he guest lectured in an environmental health course for which I was a teaching assistant prior to going to medical school. When tackling complex issues, success often comes down to a question of scale. At too small a scale, you might fix your immediate problem but create larger issues downstream. At too big a scale, you may not be able to affect real on-the-ground change. But sometimes your answer is waiting for you to ask a question at just the right level of scale for it to present itself; the question has to fit the answer. By asking for your vote to be one of this year's delegates for AAFP COD, I'm asking you to help me match the right questions to the right answers.

There are issues facing our profession at this moment in time that threaten our ability to care for our patients and communities with the best information and research available. Our national academy is uniquely poised not only to bridge some of these gaps, but it also has an opportunity to reassert the importance of primary care physicians in promoting not just healthcare, but health itself. Congress of Delegates is where we, the membership of the AAFP, get to decide our organizations national policies; I would like to be one of Utah's voices in guiding this work."

Experience in Healthcare Advocacy or Policy:

Prior to being a past delegate to AAFP COD in 2022-2023, I've been an Advocacy Committee member within UAFP for many years. In medical school, I was also a Legislative Committee member with the Illinois AFP. I designed a proposed one-month advocacy rotation curriculum for residents, and I recently completed a fellowship in population health and health services research with key coursework through Stanford's Department of Health Policy. As an undergraduate, I majored in environmental science and public policy, a special concentration of study designed to give undergraduates a foundation in translating science (including environmental health) into policy.

Saphu Pradhan, MD, FAAFP

"I want to be part of molding the future of healthcare in this country, especially with new obstacles coming our way with changes in the federal government."

Experience in Healthcare Advocacy or Policy:

I’ve been engaged in advocacy efforts via UAFP and the UMA for many years. I’ve served as alternate delegate for the UAFP during COVID. I’m also participating in NCCL.

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