Page 10 - Layout 1

BCMS CEO
ANNOUNCEMENT

The Bexar County

Medical Society Names

Melody Newsom

as its New CEO/

Executive Director

As of July 1, 2021, Melody Newsom, the research and writing bylaws for BCMS and (STRAC), San Antonio Federated Identity
current Chief Operating Officer of BCMS, our affiliate organizations, and has been re- Management Governance Council and
will become the new Executive Director of sponsible for Human Resources and the Texas Department of State Health Services.
the Bexar County Medical Society, replacing writing and implementation of policies and Since the declaration of the pandemic, she
the retiring Steve Fitzer. procedures. has served on the City of San Antonio Test-
Many of you have come to know Melody Melody has managed many large projects ing Task Force, COVID-19 Community Re-
during her 21+ years of employment at that have had an impact on the San Antonio sponse Coalition, COVID-19 Recovery
BCMS. Melody is a native Texan originally medical community, including the develop- Coordination Committee, COVID-19 In-
from Seminole, Texas. She has been married to ment of the Unified ID Badge, which Bexar vestigation/Contact Tracing Subcommittee,
her husband, Tommy, a retired dryland cotton County physicians carry today to access mul- Vaccine Implementation Planning Commit-
farmer and racehorse breeder, since 1979. tiple hospitals where they have privileges. tee, the STRAC Pandemic Medical Opera-
Melody and Tommy now live in San Antonio When Katrina/Rita blew through, Melody tions Workgroup, BCMS COVID-19 Task
with their two chihuahuas, Bode and Art. was involved in recruiting and managing Force and the Task Force’s Communications
Prior to coming to BCMS, Melody worked for medical volunteers for hurricane evacuation Plan Subcommittee.
the Legislative Budget Board in Austin, Texas. shelters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Melody expressed her enthusiastic accept-
During her time with BCMS, Melody Melody has had direct oversight of the ance of her new position this way: “It is now
has had the opportunity to perform just BCMS personal protective equipment (PPE) my great honor to be selected to take over the
about every operational task at the Society project through which much needed PPE CEO/Executive Director position with this
and has been responsible at one time or an- was provided free to our medical community. distinguished organization where I have ded-
other for most departments in the organi- Most recently, she successfully spearheaded icated most of my working life. I have always
zation. Since October of 2008, Melody has the efforts to get all physicians, their staffs and had the success of BCMS in my heart and
held the position of Chief Operating Offi- other medical professionals vaccinated as have continually worked on behalf of our
cer (COO), wherein she has been responsi- quickly as possible. physician members! I would like to express
ble for all aspects of office operations. This During her time as COO, Melody has rep- my thanks to Steve Fitzer for all his leader-
includes direct oversight of administrative resented BCMS in various capacities with ship during his tenure as CEO/Executive Di-
management, preparation and oversight of the Texas Medical Association, San Antonio rector. He has been a great mentor to me! I
five departments’ budgets, management of Metropolitan Health District, South Texas am blessed to be taking over BCMS as a very
membership and publications departments, Regional Advisory Council on Trauma strong and prosperous organization.”

10 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • July 2021