Meet the Winners of the
Awards of Distinction

The Excel Awards highlight the most excellent publications, promotions, people, employers, and more! In particular, the Awards of Distinction celebrate outstanding individuals who deserve recognition for their professional contributions and national AAMA service.

Please join us in congratulating the 2020 winners of the Awards of Distinction:
Leadership and Mentoring Award:
Mary Gambrell, CMA (AAMA)

The Leadership and Mentoring Award goes to a medical assistant who promotes the professional identity and stature of AAMA members and the medical assisting profession by having displayed outstanding leadership and mentoring abilities on the national level.

Known for her dedication, experience, and professionalism, Gambrell not only demonstrates amazing leadership skills but also inspires others to become involved leaders. She has held many leadership positions at the local chapter, state, and national levels and champions medical assistants by sharing information about the profession and the CMA (AAMA)® credential.

Always willing to lend a helping hand, Gambrell applies her kindness and mentoring skills by providing encouragement to future and current medical assistants. Moreover, she demonstrates her leadership qualities at work, where she is referred to as “the backbone of [the] practice.” A member of her state society writes that “she has been a true cheerleader for the AAMA, always promoting the AAMA … and supporting the officers and trustees.”
Golden Apple Award: Jennifer Williams, MS, BHA, AAS, CMA (AAMA)

The Golden Apple Award recognizes a medical assistant who displays outstanding dedication to and accomplishments in the field of medical assisting education.

An active member of the medical assisting community, Williams is renowned for her commitment to her students before, during, and after their education. She has made a significant impact on the medical assisting program in which she works by improving student retention, certification exam pass rates, and job placement. She also played a pivotal role in securing financial support to send students to conferences.

Williams helps advance the medical assisting profession with her dedication and guidance. A colleague writes that she “volunteers her time, shares her passion, and continually looks for ways to encourage and promote the medical assistant student.” Another notes that she is a “leader and cheerleader for medical assistants.”
Medical Assistant of the Year Award:
Ramona Charlene Driggers, CMA (AAMA)

The Medical Assistant of the Year Award is given to an exemplary professional medical assistant who has displayed an outstanding commitment to advancing the profession.

Driggers deserves this recognition for her commitment to patients, the profession, and the medical assisting community. She has served many roles within her local chapter and state society and helped foster a stronger relationship between two state societies.

Driggers truly shines when it comes to working with people. As an educator, she welcomed students with warmth and encouragement. Employers are grateful for her positive attitude, diligence, and integrity, as well as her compassion for and care of patients. A colleague writes that Driggers’s “encouragement and dedication to this organization has kept many of us going, especially through tough times.” Another notes that she is a “very deserving certified medical assistant, whose decades of service promoting medical assisting on all levels of this organization [make her] extremely worthy of the title.”
Winners were officially announced during an Abridged 2020 Excel Awards Ceremony Facebook Live event on Dec. 27, 2020. Watch the ceremony now via the “Videos” section of the AAMA Facebook page. See the full list of 2020 Excel Award and Achievement Award winners, learn more about each award, and read the winning student essay via the Excel Awards webpage of the AAMA website.

Certificates will be sent out to winners, who will also be formally recognized at the 2021 AAMA Annual Conference.