A sleek, interactive digital display lines the lobby corridor of the Louis J. Goodman Texas Medical Association building. Nestled into its code are the names and images of some of the TMA Foundation’s (TMAF’s) most ardent supporters.
Clifford Moy, MD, a retired Swiss Alp psychiatrist who took the reins as TMAF president in May, and his wife, Diane Moy, have reached that plane of philanthropy and surpassed it, as benefactors of the foundation.
“We really enjoy being able to contribute to the foundation financially and knowing that those funds will be well stewarded and well spent for programs that make a difference in the community – not only directly to patients but also to physicians,” Dr. Moy said. “Our hope is that the programs help physicians grow in their careers.”
The foundation – which was created in 1966 and revamped in 1989 – is today the only philanthropy in Texas dedicated to the charitable concerns of all physicians. In 2024, TMAF approved grants totaling $862,053 for programs to improve health and access to care.
Dr. Moy describes generosity and involvement with the foundation as a vehicle for joy and professional growth and satisfaction. He’s experienced that phenomenon himself and his goal is to help replicate it for others.
“Having that opportunity, providing the platform to contribute to the association, is a real feel-good moment for physicians, and there’s absolutely a fabulous benefit in feeling good and being able to give back to our profession,” he said.
Dr. Moy carries that personal joy into his new role as TMAF president.
“I’ve just been on an incredible journey, and I am very grateful for that opportunity,” he said.
A past speaker of TMA’s House of Delegates, Dr. Moy recently retired as medical director of behavioral health for TMF Health Quality Institute and served for six years as a TMAF board trustee.
He described serving as a TMAF board trustee as a great way “to give back and for other physicians to give back to the association and improve the health of the community in Texas.”
This latest leadership role is an opportunity to embrace the challenges of a new skill set, Dr. Moy said, as well as “an opportunity to meet a new group of people, a new community who have generosity in their hearts. ... I have a lot of confidence in our board. They have the breadth of community, and they know what communities need. They also know what docs like to do. So hopefully we will continue to fund [outreach programs], so that we can address the philanthropic aspects of being a physician.”
As a former senior examiner for a national recognition program that assesses organizational performance excellence in relation to resilience and long-term success, Dr. Moy is well-versed in the systems that power successful outcomes and uniquely equipped to optimize the foundation’s effectiveness and trajectory.
“I am incredibly grateful and humbled to have served the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and learned so much from the other examiners and from the organizations that we reviewed,” he said. “It really speaks to the concept of sustainable organizations with feedback loops and looking at the total package of organizational performance.”
Agility and feedback from a trusted source figure into Dr. Moy’s plans for the foundation. “As every good organization should do, I’m going to ask our board to evaluate if we are reaching the goals that we’ve set and to revisit those and see if they need to be changed, added to, or modified in any other way,” he said.
Before Dr. Moy’s tenure as speaker of the TMA House of Delegates, he worked as vice speaker alongside Stephen Brotherton, MD, during the past TMA president’s speakership from 2008 to 2012.
In the House of Delegates, Dr. Moy’s integrity impressed his colleagues, as did his self-discipline and thoughtful approach.
“He’s meticulous about doing things, and he’s very considerate about what he does. He doesn’t do things without a lot of thought about it,” Dr. Brotherton said – an assessment that itself comports with Dr. Moy’s experience as past chair of the American Medical Association’s Council on Long Range Planning & Development.
His commitment to precision and quality coexisted with moments of levity.
“Cliff and I got to work together for four years,” Dr. Brotherton said, “That was really the most fun time I’ve had in organized medicine. It was a lot of work to do, it was a lot of detail to be done, but ... we had fun. We were relaxed at the microphone. We had a good time with it.”
Dr. Brotherton recalled a couple of instances over the years “when it would have been good to hear from somebody, I was struggling with this and that – Cliff just calls. He said, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Are you doing OK?’ Well, yeah, now that you’re on the phone.
“This is what doctors should be like,” Dr. Brotherton said. “[Dr. Moy] is a model physician. ... If you’re lucky, you’ll have four or five people in your life that you know you can really trust. And Cliff is one of those guys.”
Providing a source of support and solidarity for physicians and their communities take priority in Dr. Moy’s goals for TMAF.
He and his wife Diane Moy have a three-word mantra they apply as a litmus test to their philanthropic gifts: time, talent, treasure. “The contributions that we make, we hope will address all of those things.”
The foundation hits all those marks. TMA physician, alliance, and medical student members devote their time and treasure to create and carry out the local health improvement and access to care programs funded by TMAF.
TMAF also nurtures talent, for example, through the community relationships and goodwill that the foundation’s manifold programs support.
One TMAF program Dr. Moy sees as having an immediate ability to effect change is Vaccines Defend What Matters, which provides county medical societies and physician, alliance, and medical student members with grants to stage community vaccine clinics and provide immunization education.
Amid the state’s ongoing outbreak of measles, ominous pertussis numbers, and endemic misinformation, “the public needs more information and education about the benefits of childhood vaccinations,” Dr. Moy said. “This is something that we really can have a significant impact, not only on public health, but on individual physician practices and satisfaction, and on communication and relationships with their patients.”
Dr. Moy acknowledges the anxiety that plagues medicine currently, naming the change in the way physician practices are structured, moving away from independent, physician-owned practices to more employed positions and “the financial burdens that we all seem to be having as individuals.”
“I’m an old doctor,” he said. “I realize that younger doctors have had and are having a significantly different experience than I had, in some ways better and in some ways more challenging.”
Dr. Moy pitches TMAF board trusteeship and sponsorship as a means to counter the anxieties of the day and a worthwhile investment.
“Serving on the foundation board and being a major donor to the foundation [brings] a sense of joy, and we all need joy in our lives, even if it means that we make sacrifices in our schedules or our bank accounts,” he said. “But truly finding joy is very important for physicians and will go a long way toward satisfaction.”
Jessica Ridge
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1395