Texas Medical Association President Gary Floyd, MD, does not remember a time wanting to be anything other than a physician.
His 43-year career in pediatrics has spanned private practice, academic medicine, emergency and urgent care, administrative medicine, and governmental affairs. Throughout, Dr. Floyd has remained laser focused on caring for his profession as well as his patients.
He grew up on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, and when he graduated from The University of Texas at Austin after three years in 1972, he was the first in his family to earn a college degree. Between his sophomore and junior years, he reconnected with a high school classmate, Karen, who would later become his wife. After graduating from The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) School of Medicine in Galveston, Dr. Floyd returned to Oklahoma City, where he completed his pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma.
Since attending his first Texas Pediatric Society meeting as a medical student, Dr. Floyd has been an active participant in organized medicine at the local, state, and national levels. His work, faith, and family formed the internal value system by which he lives and works, serving as guardrails along his path from medical school to TMA president.
Dr. Floyd chaired the TMA Board of Trustees, the association’s governing body, in 2020-21, having served seven years on the board. He also chaired the TMA Council on Legislation and served on the association’s Council on Constitution and Bylaws, and the Select Committee on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Uninsured. Dr. Floyd also was a district chair of TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee.
In addition to his TMA involvement, he previously served as president of the Texas Pediatric Society and the Tarrant County Medical Society, and he was active in the American College of Physician Executives and the Society for Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He is a fellow and board member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
As the fourth president to serve during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Floyd hopes his term will coincide with a profound sense of unity among Texas physicians as they start to redirect their attention from the virus to whatever comes next.
“One of the biggest things we have to focus on is returning professionalism and collegiality to our dealings with each other. The important thing is finding areas of commonality.”
Dr. Floyd has been married 47 years to Karen Floyd, whom he met when they were in high school and who introduced him to Christianity. The couple has two married daughters, Holly Peterson, married to Ben Peterson; and Neely Pedersen, married to Craig Pedersen, DO; and three grandsons.