“The Rural Medical Scholars Program has had an incredible impact on the health of rural Alabamians and an impact on those of us who came through the program,” said Dr. Drake Lavender, a member of the program’s 1996 inaugural class who now directs Rural Programs for the College of Community Health Sciences.
Lavender, who is also a clinical professor of family medicine at CCHS, made the remarks during the Rural Medical Scholars Program’s 30th Anniversary banquet, held at The University of Alabama Bryant Conference Center.
The anniversary celebration, hosted by CCHS’s Rural Programs, also included a welcome reception and picnic and brought together students, alumni, faculty, staff, community partners and supporters to celebrate three decades of preparing Alabama’s rural students to be the state’s rural physicians.
Established in 1996, the Rural Medical Scholars Program (RMSP) is a five-year medical education program exclusively for students from rural Alabama who aspire to become physicians and return to practice in their hometowns or similar communities. The program is operated jointly by CCHS and the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.
The RMSP is part of the College’s Rural Health Leaders Pipeline, which was created to address the shortage of primary care physicians and other health professionals in Alabama’s rural communities.
The RMSP includes a year of study, after students receive their undergraduate degree, that leads to a master’s degree in rural community health and early admission to the Heersink School of Medicine.
Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, also provided remarks at the banquet.
“Since its founding 30 years ago, a group of visionary leaders recognized a problem based on the growing shortage of physicians in rural communities and that the traditional pathways of medicine were not adequately serving rural communities,” Friend said. “Rather than accepting that reality, they created an innovative solution.”
Friend recognized the leaders who helped establish the program, including Dr. John Wheat, professor in the CCHS Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, and Dr. Jim Leeper, CCHS professor emeritus and former director of Education and Evaluation for CCHS Rural Programs. Their work helped lay the foundation for a rural health workforce pipeline designed to identify and prepare students who understand the needs of rural communities.
Dr. Jackie Luker, who was also a Rural Medical Scholar, provided an overview of the College’s Rural Programs and reflected on the significance of returning to the program as a leader and educator.
For Luker, the anniversary represented a full-circle moment, recognizing the leaders and mentors who guided her as a student and now serving as a mentor to the next generation of Rural Medical Scholars.
Together with Leeper, Dr. Antonio Gardner, director of Education and Evaluation for CCHS Rural Programs, highlighted the impact of the RMSP through a presentation of program data and milestones. Since its founding in 1996, 271 students have participated in the program. Ninety-two percent have graduated with medical degrees, while 69% have entered primary-care residencies.
The anniversary banquet concluded with a keynote address from Wheat, one of the leaders whose vision helped establish the RMSP.
Wheat discussed the program’s development as a response to the shortage of physicians in rural Alabama and the need for a structured approach to preparing students for rural medical practice.
Wheat talked about how the RMSP moves away from traditional models of medical education that center on urban, hospital-based training and toward a community-based approach that recruits students from rural backgrounds. The pipeline can begin as early as high school and continue through undergraduate education, graduate studies, medical school and residency.
Looking to the future, Wheat emphasized the importance of continued institutional support, community partnerships and research to sustain the pipeline and address the evolving health workforce needs of rural Alabama.
Thirty years after its founding, the Rural Medical Scholars Program continues to prepare physicians who are equipped to serve rural Alabama and contribute to the health of the communities they call home.