2025 Bayou Region Influencers: Michael Garcia – Sponsored Content

2025 Bayou Region Influencers: Amanda Kennedy – Sponsored Content
January 30, 2025
2025 Bayou Region Influencers: Kristine Strickland – Sponsored Content
January 30, 2025
2025 Bayou Region Influencers: Amanda Kennedy – Sponsored Content
January 30, 2025
2025 Bayou Region Influencers: Kristine Strickland – Sponsored Content
January 30, 2025

Michael Garcia, MD | Chief Executive Officer, CEO for South Louisiana Medical Associates

BUSINESSES’ RECENT SUCCESSES/ACHIEVEMENTS:

One of our most recent exciting achievements was opening our brand-new multispecialty clinic in Houma in 2024. It brings together Family Medicine, General Surgery, Podiatry, and Infectious Disease experts under one roof, saving patients time and travel while offering comprehensive care closer to home. We’re already seeing a positive impact, with increased patient access and improved convenience. And we’re not stopping there! We’re constantly listening to community needs and actively planning to expand our services with even more specialties in the future.


What inspired your journey to the role you hold today? Was this career path something you envisioned early on, or did it evolve over time?

I was inspired to increase the size of our physician group, to take care of more people and deliver more services to our community. My original career path was in electrical engineering, and after doing that work for 5 years, I went back to school to join the medical field. It was not my original direction, but it was a natural step.

Can you share one of the most significant challenges you’ve encountered in your career and the steps you took to overcome it?


The most significant challenge that I have encountered and continued to encounter is the often negative treatment that physicians face. I hope to continue to challenge the fact that Louisiana is the 50th in healthcare, and that despite the barriers often presented from those in charge, we can become better than that.

Looking ahead, what are some key goals or aspirations you’re excited about pursuing?

I would like to lead efforts to improve the conditions that physicians work in, as well as demonstrate to the appropriate folks that when left uninhibited, patient outcomes and quality objectives can easily be met.


Besides your phone, what’s one tool, habit, or resource that keeps you productive and motivated throughout the day?

My main motivation is knowing that we can continue to improve the field and help people moving into the future– and the tool to keep that motivation is hitting the “reset button” by spending quality time with friends, families, and loved ones during our days off.

What’s a piece of advice or a mantra you frequently share with your team or colleagues?


My three rules for engagement are these– number one, do your job. Number two, do your job while I’m not looking. And, most importantly, number three– don’t miss your kids growing up.

Reflecting back on your career, what achievement are you most proud of and why?

Changing my career path from engineering to the medical field is an accomplishment I am quite proud of. Starting over completely was difficult, but the journey that led me to the leadership position I am in now has been incredibly rewarding.


Who have been the most influential figures in your life or career? And how does it feel to know you’ve become a source of inspiration for others?

First of all, my uncle, who was a Family Practice Physician in west Texas– I looked up to him for so many reasons, and was such an inspiration in so many ways. The other significant person was Dr. Frank Riddick, the former CEO of Oschner Health and a good friend of mine. He was such a smart man who saw the world differently, and that deeply inspired me. I like to think that as a source of inspiration now to others, I am leaving the world better than I found it.

What positive change or impact do you hope to contribute to the Bayou Region this year?


In 2025, there are a lot of barriers in healthcare that I have been experiencing recently. I hope that this year, through our work, we can continue to break some of these barriers down to deliver the best quality care for people in our community.