The 2026 Richard Neubauer Advocate for Internal Medicine Award was awarded to Lacy C. Hobgood, MD, MACP, FAAP for his contribution to advocacy.

This flagship award for grassroots advocacy is presented each year during Leadership Day to recognize individuals who have made exceptional efforts in support of the College’s advocacy program.
As the leader of the North Carolina ACP Chapter’s advocacy efforts for the last ten years, Dr. Hobgood has been a voice for both his colleagues in medicine and his patients. He has been instrumental in leading the North Carolina Chapter delegation to Leadership Day and inspiring chapter members to attend and engage in advocacy at both the national and state levels. He has also written editorials, attended town hall meetings, and met in-district with his members of Congress to advocate on behalf of his patients, his profession, and ACP. As a member of the Advocate for Internal Medicine Network (AIMn), he has been responsive to ACP’s action alerts on policy priorities and a consistent, longtime participant in ACP’s annual Leadership Day. He has also been a consistent contributor to the ACP Services PAC at the Gold Level and held a three-year term on the ACP Services Board.

In 2019, Dr. Hobgood worked with his then state representative, Dr. Greg Murphy, to introduce a bill to require the placement of automated external defibrillators and major bleeding control kits in every public school in the state, along with required training for school personnel and first aid instructions in high schools. After discovering that Georgia had recently passed a similar law, he worked with Rep. Dr. Murphy to get a similar bill, NC House Bill 288 of the 2019 session, passed. It is now NC law!

Additionally, as the NC ACP Chapter Governor, Dr. Hobgood met with many state elected officials to advocate for expansion of Medicaid under the terms of the Affordable Care Act – which finally happened in the fall of 2023.

In addition to his efforts at the federal and state level, Dr. Hobgood has brought these topics to his trainees and communities in multiple ways – from speaking about the importance of political advocacy to many different groups of medical students and resident physicians at the Brody School of Medicine over the years, to most recently being invited to give a talk on “Clinician Advocacy” to practicing clinicians during an Eastern Area Health Education Center CME conference and to the Brody Scholars (the honors program for medical students).