Dr. Jerry Kruse Honored by National Family Medicine Organization
Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, dean and provost of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and CEO of SIU Medicine, has received the Lynn and Joan Carmichael STFM Recognition Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM). The award honors outstanding leadership in advancing family medicine as a discipline.
Kruse is a national advocate for innovation in medical education and the advancement of health care systems. As a thought leader in family medicine, Kruse has held major positions with many national organizations to represent primary care, graduate education, address quality issues and advance the health care workforce. These include the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (president 2012-13) Association of Departments of Family Medicine, the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors and the North American Primary Care Research Group. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Board of Family Medicine and for Family Medicine for America's Health. He was also a frequent member of a team that provided public health and acute medical care in Honduras.
A nominator wrote, "Dr. Kruse has become an example of what can be possible when we think big, embrace change without fear and remain laser-focused on our mission to improve the health of all."
Kruse embraces the rapid changes in technology and communication, health care delivery, in medical education, and in biomedical research. His focus is to fulfill the Triple Aim + 1: medical education and health care that are more effective, efficient, equitable and enjoyable for all. Another goal is to improve health not just for individuals, but for populations, particularly for the 66 counties in Illinois that is the service area of SIU School of Medicine.
Kruse joined the SIU School of Medicine faculty in 1984 and has served the organization in many leadership roles. He was executive associate dean of SIU School of Medicine from 2013 until his appointment as Dean and Provost in 2016. He was professor and chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine (1997-2013). From 2007-11, he was appointed to the Council on Graduate Medical Education, the multi-specialty advisory committee that reports to the U.S. Congress and Health and Human Services Secretaries Michael Leavitt and Kathleen Sebelius.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Kruse most recently received the STFM Advocate Award (2016), the Brown University Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians Elise M Colletta Educational Leadership Award (2016) and the University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and New York Academy of Family Physicians Max Cheplove Award (2015). He has been a member of STFM since 1993.
He is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He completed a two-year Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in academic family medicine. He earned a master's degree in public health at the University of Missouri School of Medicine (1984), where he also completed his three-year residency in family medicine (1982). He earned his medical and bachelor's degrees at the University of Missouri-Columbia (1979, 1975).
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