“Every doctor, in some capacity, is a leader,” said Brian Bruel, MD, thinking about how community members look up to physicians. But for those Texas Medical Association physicians who want to truly affect change, he recommends Leadership College, in which he enrolled 15 years ago.
TMA’s professional development program, open to early-career physicians in their first eight years of practice, is accepting applications until June 13 for the class of 2026.
“For those people with higher aspirations to become leaders of society, leaders in a community or even nationally, it’s a very good stepping stone to understanding policy a lot better, and understanding how to advocate not just for your patient in a clinical setting, but also to advocate for your specialty and just being a physician,” the Houston pain management specialist said.
Since enrolling in the inaugural Leadership Class in 2010, Dr. Bruel served as president of the Texas Pain Society (TPS) from 2018 to 2020, where he recalls using his Leadership College skills – including knowledge of state politics – to benefit his specialty colleagues. He helped coordinate with the Texas Medical Board and the governor’s office at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding telemedicine access to controlled substance prescriptions
At first worried about having “imposter syndrome,” he soon realized Leadership College had imbued in him “the confidence to be able to tell members in [TPS] my opinion, with a little bit of thought and not just emotion. That’s how that helped me.”
He also still values the networking opportunities leadership training provided, as well as the perspective it gave him on the inner workings of medical organizations, which have served him as a member of TMA’s Council on Socioeconomics.
“I never knew about how to write a resolution, how to get that resolution up to the House of Delegates and get my voice, based on that resolution, adopted as policy,” he reflected. “I learned about the processes for policy and how we can effectively create change for our profession.”
Now Dr. Bruel focuses much of his leadership energies at the county level.
At Harris County Medical Society (HCMS), he’s currently serving on the executive board and as president-elect of the Houston Academy of Medicine, its charitable arm providing community health education – two posts he characterizes being along the pathway to becoming HCMS president.
Explore the Leadership College application process, which is open now until June 13 for the program’s class of 2026, and revisit another inaugural Leadership College member who became TMA’s president.
Phil West
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1394
phil.west[at]texmed[dot]org
Phil West is a writer and editor whose publications include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, and San Antonio Express-News. He earned a BA in journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He lives in Austin with his wife, children, and a trio of free-spirited dogs.