For Lenore DePagter, DO, MBA, blazing a trail as part of the Texas Medical Association Leadership College’s (TMALC’s) inaugural 2011 class ultimately set her on a path to a career using her hard-earned new skills.
As medical director for Driscoll Health Plan in the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. DePagter now works in utilization management, population health, interdisciplinary rounds, and physician relations, among other areas of expertise.
She credits the Leadership College with planting the seed for her master’s degree in business administration, crucial to her current role, and instilling in her the confidence to pursue it.
“[Attending TMALC] really strengthened a desire in me to get an MBA,” Dr. DePagter said. She notched that achievement, post-TMALC, at the University of Texas at Dallas. “I got enough exposure that I said, ‘This is really something I want to do and something I can do.’”
A sense of possibility and excitement suffused Dr. DePagter’s and her peers’ experience of Leadership College. “It was a fully developed program, but we still felt like we were kind of on the frontier of something new starting.”
Opportunities to network with other young physicians and learn about TMA’s leadership structure as well as chances upon graduation to assume leadership roles greatly impacted Dr. DePagter’s TMALC experience.
“When we graduated, we all had opportunities to work on [TMA] councils and committees,” she said. Dr. DePagter began her leadership journey with a seat on the Council for Constitution and Bylaws, which she later chaired, and by chairing the Young Physician Section, in addition to sitting on what was at the time the nascent Council for Member Experience.
TMALC “helped us solidify our relationships and then really facilitated us, all of the graduates, being [in] and having positions at the state level and in our local medical societies,” said Dr. DePagter, who now sits on TMA’s Committee on Cancer and serves as secretary-treasurer for the Hidalgo-Starr County Medical Society after having previously served as the county society’s vice president and president.
That run of leadership was preceded by Dr. DePagter’s time on the Tri-County Medical Society that serves Hays, Caldwell, and Blanco counties, where she also served as secretary-treasurer, vice president, and president.
For both of those county medical societies, Dr. DePagter launched a member directory project, with development and publishing help from TMA staff, whose assistance, guidance, and resources she called “integral.”
The directories are a print resource for each county medical society’s members that include contact information for physician members, as well as leadership rosters, information about medical society and TMA events, and advertising by local medical and business entities.
Dr. DePagter looks back on her TMALC tenure with pride and gratitude.
“I feel really proud that I was able to complete Leadership College. I’m really thankful that TMA had the foresight to see that it was so valuable to members and that it could really set you on a path in organized medicine and in your local communities to be a leader.”
Learn more about the TMA Leadership College and apply by June 13 to be part of the TMALC Class of 2026.
Jessica Ridge
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1395