Empowering Physician Families

Dinah Goldenberg was born in Winnipeg Canada. She has a Degree in Civil Engineering but opted to be a stay at home parent to her two sons, Sam and Matthew, which allowed her endless opportunities for community service.

As an active member of the Alliance since the late 1990’s, Dinah has served at all levels, including County President (Fargo, ND), State President (ND), three years as AMA Alliance Director, and Alliance representative to the AMA Foundation. In addition, she served seven years on the board of the Alliance Health Education Initiative (AHEI) including as Treasurer and Board Chair. Since moving to Nevada, Dinah has served as Recording Secretary and a member of the Finance and Bylaws Committees for the Clark County Medical Society Alliance, and as secretary and bylaws chair for the state Alliance. She returned to national Alliance board service as secretary in 2023/2024, bylaws chair in 2024/2025 and president-elect in 2025/2026.

Dinah was an elected member of the Fargo Public Schools - School Board for twelve years. She served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Fargo Film Festival and continues to be a jury chair. All of her extended volunteer efforts throughout the years have focused on education and/or health initiatives. She has served on numerous non profit boards locally and nationally.

In October 2020, Dinah and her husband Jay, a Radiologist, relocated from North Dakota to Nevada. They retired early so they could enjoy the beautiful outdoors of Nevada. Their home is always open to family and friends, especially Alliance friends from across the country!!

Dinah is passionate about the Alliance and it’s unique role in the family of medicine. She is honored to be the president. She is excited to work with the board team to increase the Alliance’s visibility, and value to our members and the community.

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Ron's professional journey is marked by his experience and competence. As a retired Executive Pastor, he dedicated ten years to various churches. His expertise extends to the medical fi eld, with over 15 years in Hospital and Medical Offi ce Administration and Human Resources.

Ron is married to Dr. Terri Jaggers. They have been married for forty-five years and have three daughters and seven grandchildren. Terri is a practicing Gastroenterologist.

Ron joined his local alliance, the Florence County Medical Society Alliance, in 2018. He has served as Secretary, President-Elect, and President. He has also served on the South Carolina Medical Association Alliance as Vice President where he has served on several committees. He is also a member of the Florida Medical Association Alliance.

Ron joined the AMA Alliance in October 2019 and served as the 2025-2026 President and is currently serving as the Immediate Past President. He has served as President-Elect, Director of Membership for two years, and two years on the Finance Committee; he was the 2022 Southern Region Representative, the Nominations Committee as the Southern Region Representative, and on many task forces.

Ron also currently serves as the treasurer for the Florence County Regional Arts Alliance Board. He also served nine years on the General Baptist Executive Committee and was chair of the Human Resources Committee for six years.

Ron's service to the AMA Alliance is a source of joy and fulfi llment. He is deeply committed to serving our members and our organization, and his enthusiasm is palpable.

Kirby Sheridan contributes to Alliances at the local, state, and national level. She is a former Cabarrus County (NC) and former and current North Carolina Medical Society Alliance president. For seven years, Kirby edited the AMA Alliance LINK online newsletter and has enjoyed working with the AMA Alliance communications team to connect with AMA Alliance members and broadcast programming, member benefits and accomplishments of the AMA Alliance. Kirby served on the AMA Alliance Board of Directors as director of the Communications Council for two years and then as AMA Alliance secretary in 2025-26. She is happy to serve a second year in that role.

Originally from Shelby, North Carolina, Kirby and her husband, Dave, an interventional radiologist, lived in Baltimore, Cleveland, and Columbia, SC, before returning to North Carolina twenty-three years ago. After a career in corporate communications, marketing and sales in the pharmaceutical industry, Kirby chose to stay at home to raise their five children. She has served as a longtime community activist and fundraiser and board member for several organizations and the local public schools. Kirby and Dave celebrated their youngest child’s graduation from college in May of 2026. They have four grandchildren.

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Ashley is a dedicated advocate for the medical profession, with leadership experience at the local, state, and national levels of the Medical Alliance. She has served as President of the Alliance to the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, the Madison County Medical Alliance, and the Student Medical Alliance at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. She also served on the board of the former Southern Medical Association Alliance.

With a professional background in Human Resources and Accounting, Ashley devoted many years to raising her two children and supporting her husband throughout his medical training in Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee. She has held numerous nonprofit leadership roles, with a particular focus on finance, fundraising, and community engagement, serving organizations including the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, South Cumberland Community Fund, American Red Cross, Junior League, and United Way. She also served on PTA boards throughout her children's school years, including as president during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashley remains active in community and church leadership through volunteer service, board involvement, and ministry work.

She and her husband, John, have called Huntsville, Alabama home since 2007. Their son anddaughter are both graduating from college in 2026. In their free time, they enjoy spending time attheir cabin on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau and playing in a local adult ice hockey league

Lori Boies is a dedicated educator, researcher, and advocate within the medical community.  She has a history of active Alliance involvement for 15 years including joining the AMA Alliance in 2010, serving as the Bexar County Medical Society Alliance President for its centennial year in 2017 (San Antonio, Texas), as well as serving in multiple board positions at the Texas Medical Association Alliance. In addition to her Alliance work, Lori is a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at St. Mary’s University. As a program director, she is currently leading the development and implementation of a Master’s-level graduate program in Medical Genomics. Her research interests span gene annotation, cancer biology, public health, and epidemiology.  Lori is also collaborating with fellow AMA Alliance members on the Physician Family Experience Survey project, which aims to improve understanding and support for physician families.  She holds a PhD in Cancer Biology from UT Southwestern Medical Center and an MPH in Epidemiology with a certificate in Genomics and Bioinformatics from UT Health School of Public Health.

Outside of her professional and volunteer roles, Lori enjoys spending time with her husband and their two daughters. Her husband, Dr. Brian Boies is a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain medicine physician and currently serves as Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice President at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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Brian Case brings an uncommon perspective to physician well-being: he is both a lifelong student of medicine's human cost and a serial entrepreneur who has spent 25 years building companies that solve real problems for real people. As the husband of an Ob/Gyn he met during her residency and the father of three sons, he has witnessed firsthand what financial stress, burnout, and professional isolation do to physician families—and chose to do something about it.

Brian serves on the AMA Alliance Board of Directors as Chair of Membership and Marketing and is a member of the Health Initiatives Committee. In his professional life, he is the founder of Direct Wealth Care and CEO of Savology—two platforms built specifically to reduce financial stress among physicians and healthcare professionals. Direct Wealth Care integrates evidence-based well-being measurement, through the Well-Being Index developed at Mayo Clinic, with personalized financial planning tools and human support. Savology's ten-minute financial wellness platform helps individuals and organizations build clarity and confidence around money, driving meaningful behavior change.

Over a 25-year career, Brian has launched eight ventures, successfully sold six, and earned his Certified Financial Planner® designation—grounding his entrepreneurial instincts in rigorous financial planning expertise. He is passionate about the Alliance's unique role at the intersection of medicine and family life, and brings both strategic and operational experience to his board service.

Brian and his wife live in Utah and are the proud parents of three sons, ages 23, 20, and 18

Dr. Lisa Muehlenbein is a leading voice in physician burnout and its ripple effects on medical families and healthcare systems. With a PhD in Health Psychology, over 30 years in the health and wellness field, and nearly three decades as a medical spouse, she brings a uniquely integrated perspective to physician and family well-being.

As the current Director of Programs for the American Medical Association Alliance, Dr. Muehlenbein leads national initiatives that support member engagement, advance health-focused programming, and elevate resources for physician families across all stages of medical life. Her work emphasizes the critical role of the family system in addressing burnout and strengthening the healthcare workforce.

She is the author of Physician Burnout and the Marital Relationship: Spouse Perspective, Wellness Beyond the White Coat and host of The MedLife Support Podcast. Through her leadership and the MedLife Matrix™ methodology, she is helping redefine how organizations and families approach physician well-being—shifting from awareness to sustainable, systemic change.

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Sheridan Sheffield currently serves as the AMA Alliance Communications Council chair. She has been a member of the AMAA Communications Council since becoming an editor of Physician Family Alliance in Motion magazine 7 years ago. With a degree in journalism, she has enjoyed using that skill set to promote the mission and work of the Alliance.

She has been an active member of the Alliance since 1996 and has served as Weber County (UT) president and the Utah Medical Association Alliance Chair. Through the years Sheridan has served in many capacities on the local board level, but perhaps her favorite role is being a member of the Heartbeats, an Alliance singing group that performs during the Christmas season to about 15 senior centers and care centers throughout her county.

Sheridan’s service to the community also included heavy involvement in the PTA while her five children progressed through the public school system.  After years of being soccer mom, swim mom and dance mom, she is now enjoying being Nana to nine grandsons.

She and her husband William have been married 36 years. After he finished his residency in emergency medicine in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they moved to South Ogden, Utah, where they have lived for 30 years. They enjoy the mountains and lakes and time skiing, boating and biking.

Jenny Shepherd is a past president of the Texas Medical Association Alliance and a former county Alliance president. She currently serves as chair of First Tuesdays, the Texas Medical Association’s signature advocacy program, which brings over a thousand physician spouses, medical students, and physicians to the state capitol each legislative session to advocate for the needs of medicine. Jenny also created and leads the Party of Medicine program, a statewide initiative designed to educate and engage others on the importance of grassroots advocacy.

Jenny serves on the TEXPAC Executive Board and is an active political fundraiser, supporting medicine-friendly candidates at the local and state levels. She is the only two-time recipient of the prestigious June Bratcher Award for Political Action, the highest honor awarded by TEXPAC for outstanding political involvement. Nationally, she has served on the Board of Directors and on the Advocacy and Legislation and Bylaws Councils for the American Medical Association Alliance (AMAA).

As a lifelong advocate for others, Jenny began her career as an audiologist before moving into public health and policy, where she has focused on improving healthcare access, maternal-child health, and physician advocacy. She lives in San Antonio with her husband, John, a pediatric anesthesiologist, and they share a life deeply rooted in medicine. They also share their home with two 150-pound Great Danes, who keep life entertaining. Their son Adam, his wife Allie, and granddaughter Lucy are also in San Antonio, while their daughter Anna and son-in-law Zach live in Tucson — conveniently providing the perfect excuse to travel.

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Rula Ali has been an active and dedicated member of the Alliance for over 20 years. She has served in multiple leadership roles, including Co-President of the Genesee County Medical Society Alliance and President of the Michigan State Medical Society Alliance. In addition, she has served on both boards in a variety of capacities over the years.

Currently, Rula serves as Bylaws Chair for the AMA Alliance and has previously held roles as Regional Representative and Co-Chair of Online Academy.

With a background in law, Rula is actively involved in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. She practices mediation in a range of areas and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Community Resolution Center, where she also volunteers as a mediator.

Rula and her husband, Dr. Omar Bakr, a practicing cardiologist, are the proud parents of four sons. They reside in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Rula is a passionate supporter of the Alliance and treasures the lasting friendships she has built through her involvement.

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Ann Sanford grew up on a small dairy farm in east central Wisconsin and moved to Duluth, MN to attend college and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. She started her own preschool and met husband, Paul, on a blind date in 1992. Shortly after her marriage, she joined Lake Superior Medical Society Alliance, the Minnesota Medical Association Alliance and the AMA alliance and has been a member since 1994.

Ann has served many positions in the local Alliance and state Alliance including secretary, president-elect and president.  Besides serving for the Alliance, she has served on the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra board, the Duluth Children’s Museum board, local PBS Community Advisory board and volunteered at her children’s schools throughout their education. She has enjoyed working with others while accomplishing great things such as successful fundraisers, fun activities with children and building relationships within the community.

Currently Ann works in her church office as assistant business manager. For the past several years, Ann has served on the AHEI, Alliance Health Education Initiative, as a committee member, secretary, chair-elect and will take over the role of Chair of AHEI at the AMAA 2026 Annual meeting.

Ann and Paul, an internal medicine physician with St. Luke’s in Duluth, have four children; Richard, living at home, Michael, moving to Chicago to attend grad school, Clara, her husband and her daughter live in Duluth and Margaret and her husband live in Philadelphia. When Ann is not working, she enjoys knitting, working in the garden or reading.  

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