Angela D. Zawisza, DO, FAAP, Installed as 115th POMA President

June 2026 | Vol. 70, No. 2

Angela D. Zawisza, DO, FAAP, was installed as POMA’s 2026–2027 President during the Presidential Installation Banquet at POMA’s Annual Clinical Assembly on May 15, 2026, at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions in Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Zawisza has been a member of the association since 2007. She began her leadership service within the association as a District Trustee in 2020. She was elected Vice President in 2024 and President-Elect in 2025. She continues to serve as a delegate to both the POMA House of Delegates and the American Osteopathic Association House of Delegates.

Dr. Zawisza is chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Schuylkill in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Board-certified in pediatrics, she graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, and earned her medical degree from Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2007. She completed an internship and pediatric residency at Geisinger Medical Center’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania.

In addition to serving as POMA’s President for 2026–2027, Dr. Zawisza serves as the champion of POMA’s Communications Pillar and as a member of the POMA Foundation Board of Directors. A Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, she is also a member of the American Osteopathic Association.

The following is a transcript of Dr. Zawisza’s speech delivered during the Presidential Installation Banquet:

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for coming tonight.

First order of business: does anyone have a couch Joe can sleep on?

Second order of business: just a few words from me. Joe’s speech at his inauguration was 16 minutes, so naturally, my speech will be shorter. As many of you know, POMA was founded in 1903, meaning we are about to celebrate our 125th anniversary. Our mission has always been, in some way, shape, or form, to advocate for osteopathic physicians in the state of Pennsylvania. How exactly we achieve that goal is what has changed over the years.

In 1903, there was one osteopathic medical school in the state, the Philadelphia College and Infirmary of Osteopathy. PCIO expanded and then ultimately, new schools opened, beginning with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1992. The state of Pennsylvania now boasts three medical schools with four campuses, and another school is set to open soon.

But while osteopathic medicine was expanding, osteopathic physicians struggled to obtain full practice rights under state law. POMA’s work at that time focused on helping DOs attain recognition and fighting opposition from those who did not believe that DOs were capable physicians. Through constant hard work and determination, in 1978 osteopathic physicians were granted full practice rights in the state of Pennsylvania, just in time for our immediate past president to graduate from medical school. For those keeping track, I was not born yet.

Since 1978, POMA has been able to shift its focus from helping osteopathic physicians achieve full practice rights. We still spend our days promoting osteopathic medicine for our physician members, their patients, and all the residents in Pennsylvania. What that looks like now is very different from prior to 1978. It means establishing a podcast and discussing things like artificial intelligence and developing a digital journal rather than publishing a print journal. It means a solid reputation in the state legislature for providing trustworthy, meaningful opinions on health care legislation. It means a series of grants through the POMA Foundation that support residency wellness programs as well as initiatives designed to better a local community. It means partnering with the PIAA on a campaign to promote healthy athletes. It means that while we still have an Annual Clinical Assembly, we also offer the same lectures simulcast and on-demand to support our colleagues who have difficulty traveling to in-person events. 

Despite these efforts, and like many other organizations, POMA is suffering from a membership drop. On the surface, our numbers look steady, with approximately the same number of members over the last few years. But with more and more DOs graduating medical school, and the number of DOs in the state increasing steadily, we have lost our market share. In 2020, about 43% of DOs in Pennsylvania were POMA members, compared to just 29% in 2025.

We’ve accomplished some fantastic things in the last several years, but we need to DO more. Today’s generation of DOs has a completely different medical practice and lifestyle than their predecessors. Today’s generation moves fast, so POMA will need to move even faster to stay ahead of the curve. Furthermore, the ratio of employed vs independent physicians has changed dramatically, and recent estimates suggest that employed physicians now outnumber independent physicians by nearly three to one in the state. We need to stay relevant to ALL osteopathic physicians in the state, and we certainly need to find a way to maintain our traditional support of independent physicians while advocating for their employed colleagues. 

Therefore, my theme this year is Honoring the Past While Preparing for the Future.  A little wordy, yes, and don’t worry, you’re not going to see it on our new logo. I plan to use the expertise of our past POMA Presidents and other distinguished members, in conjunction with the knowledge of our newer members and new technology, to help POMA become the medical association that osteopathic physicians can’t live without. This will not in any way be an easy task and will take more than a year. But it is my hope that within the next few years, we’ll be able to proudly report that our market share is increasing, rather than decreasing. We’ll do it without losing sight of our current mission: advocating for our physician members, their patients, and the communities they serve.

Let’s move on to the third order of business: there are a lot of people in this room that I need to thank.

First, thank you to the members of the House of Delegates and the board of trustees who have entrusted me with this position. I will do my best to serve POMA well. And specifically, to the physicians with whom I have served as an officer of POMA: Dr. John Kalata, Dr. William Swallow, Dr. George Wolters, and Dr. Valeri Roth.

Second, thank you to the POMA staff: Margaret, Susan, Deb, Tammy, James, Jason, Tyler, Angie, and Andy. It’s been said numerous times before but bears repeating. Your passion and drive for the organization knows no bounds, and I am honored to work with you.

To my siblings, both the ones I was born with and the ones I acquired, and all of my nieces and nephews. Thank you for traveling to be here tonight to celebrate with us. Some of you had to travel further than others, and I appreciate you taking the time out of school and work to be here. Although, I’m sure coming to a water park helped sweeten the deal. Every single one of you has helped in some way or another, whether it be dusting the gold-plated princess, building bookcases and helping me move several times, assisting me in ensuring the turkey and mashed potatoes didn’t go to waste after a wedding, helping with the logistics of activities and games, or simply just knowing exactly what it is like to raise four boys that are carbon copies of their father. All of you have watched our boys at some point in time so that we could work or travel to POMA events; meanwhile, you chauffeured them to games, taught them to water ski or wakeboard, and dropped them off at Scout camp. Thank you. Drinks are on me.

To my in-laws, Mike and Joan (may she rest in peace). Thank you for welcoming me into the family, even if it was only because I have more ability than anyone else to make Joe shut his mouth. Thank you for watching my children so that I can do the job I love, and giving me the peace of mind knowing that I can call you and say “I have to go back into work,” and your response is simply “What do you need me to do?” The kids are older now and require less supervision, but that just simply means they need to be driven to more places. Your influence does not end there; thank you for inspiring a love of osteopathic medicine in Joe. I literally would not be standing here today without it.

To my parents, Tom and Linda. Like many others in this room, I wanted to be a physician from a young age. Also like many others in this room, I ran into roadblocks along the way to achieving that goal. About two weeks into my freshman year of college, I called my parents to tell them that I was going to switch my major from biology to history and I was going to be a history teacher. Fortunately, they knew that my passion lay in the medical field, talked me off the ledge, and continued to support me throughout the remainder of college, then a gap year, then medical school and residency, even as each stage of my education took me further and further from my childhood home in Missouri. My parents always said they wanted to raise independent children, but I can’t imagine that they ever thought that raising an independent daughter would mean she would end up permanently living in Pennsylvania. But just like that phone call from college, they took that news in stride, too, and continue to do everything they can to support me and my family, even from afar, and provide an example for me to follow when inevitably our own independent children move to follow their dreams.

To my boys, Adam, Nicholas, Joshua and Benjamin. I don’t think you know a world without POMA in it. Adam, we have pictures of you dancing with the Mummers when you were four; all of you have been part of the Secret Service Detail for past presidents, and Ben, you were literally 10 days old when you attended your first POMA conference. All of you have even been on a POMA podcast! Doctors’ kids have a different reality: your dad and I both have missed your activities due to work and other obligations. You all know that it’s bad news to have a baby on 100% oxygen and have listened to me rant about the limitations of working with transfer centers. Each one of you, many, many times over, has sacrificed time with me so that I can attend to an emergency or a POMA meeting. Thank you. I am so proud of the young men you are becoming. 

And finally, to my husband. It feels like just yesterday when we were first introduced at a resident mixer and you had to teach me NICU math, and yet we have known each other for almost 19 years. We would be here all night if I listed every single one of the things that I have to thank you for. I’m a lot to handle. You have been a stalwart of support over the last two decades, and your passion for POMA and your encouragement that I should run for president are a large part of the reason why I am standing behind this podium today. I have something that no other POMA president has had before: a past president living under the same roof. You’d better believe I’m going to take advantage of your wisdom and your experience as I navigate this next year.

And for my final order of business, I’m going to stop talking. I gotta beat that 16-minute mark. Thank you again for coming tonight. I hope you enjoy the rest of the evening!