WASHINGTON, DC – June 5, 2025 — The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), the leading national, non-partisan and multi-stakeholder voice advocating for better health and wellbeing for all Americans by strengthening primary care, presented its 2025 Barbara Starfield Awards to leading advocates and practitioners who have demonstrated records of improving the nation’s health by advancing and strengthening high-quality primary care at the national, state or community level and at the practice level.
“These outstanding primary care champions have impacted every part of the system — from health care education to direct patient care,” said PCC President and CEO Ann Greiner at last night’s award ceremony. “Despite our nation’s substantial underinvestment in primary care, these leaders are achieving outstanding results for patients and our health care system.”
The awards were presented in person at the Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner on June 4, 2025, during PCC’s biennial DC conference, Scaling What Works for Better Health.
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Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award
Allan Goroll, MD
Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Goroll is considered one of the pioneers of modern primary care internal medicine. He graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University and cum laude from Harvard Medical School. With help from collaborating MGH faculty and while still in medical school, he designed and initiated the nation’s first dedicated primary care internal medicine residency program, which set the national standard for subsequent program certification and federal funding under the Health Resources and Services Administration.
About the Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award
The PCC established the Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award in 2012 to honor Dr. Starfield, recognizing her enduring commitment to the philosophy that all individuals should receive comprehensive, coordinated and person-focused care. The award is presented to an individual or organization that demonstrates exceptional work toward advancing the goals of primary care and a strong commitment to person-focused care.
Primary Care Community Leadership Award
Barbra G. Rabson, MPH
President and CEO, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners
Barbra G. Rabson is the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP). Under her leadership, MHQP has become a national leader in the measurement and public reporting of health care information. In the past few years, Rabson has focused the organization’s work around three main areas of impact: improving patient experiences, advancing health equity and strengthening primary care.
About the Primary Care Community Leadership Award
The Primary Care Community Leadership Award honors an individual or organization that has demonstrated remarkable leadership to ensure that primary care is foundational to community or state health care reform efforts. Such efforts are critical to developing and understanding what works to strengthen primary care and to inform broader national efforts to improve the nation’s health by making primary care more robust.
Advanced Primary Care Practice Award
Anna Flattau, MD, MSc, MS – in recognition of Jefferson Health
Anna Flattau, MD, MSc, MS, is a physician leader who links vision, strategy, systems design, and implementation to drive sustainable, mission-driven care within complex health systems. Dr. Flattau is currently Enterprise Chief of Primary Care at Jefferson Health, and Alumni Professor and Chair of Family and Community Medicine at Sidney Kimmel College of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In this role, she leads a nationally renowned academic family medicine department, and is the health system leader for population-based clinical care of over 1,000,000 people in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, including traditional primary care; interprofessional care; telehealth primary care services; integrated behavioral health; medical weight management; complex care models; and community-based care.
About the Advanced Primary Care Practice Award
This award is presented to an organization that is an extraordinary primary care practice. This practice serves as a model for transformation through innovation and demonstrates a commitment to the Shared Principles of Primary Care by delivering patient- and family-centered, team-based and high value care. Over 380 organizations across the country have signed on to PCC’S Shared Principles of Primary Care.
David Meyers Research Award
Dawna I. Ballard, PhD
University of Texas, Austin in recognition of the piece “Unhurried Conversations…“
Dawna I. Ballard, PhD, is associate professor of organizational communication and technology in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. An expert in chronemics (the study of time as it is bound to human communication) she researches what drives our pace of life and its impact on the communication practices and long-term vitality of organizations, communities, and individuals.
About the David Meyers Research Award
The award was established in 2023 to honor and advance the legacy of Dr. David Meyers, a primary care physician and leader in health policy research. Dr. Meyers’ work and influence extends across many sectors within health care and is most notable for its interdisciplinary nature, humanism, policy relevance and leadership in the field of primary care. This award is presented to the individual whose research work best exemplifies these commitments and Dr. Meyers’s impact.