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 HealthCare, has received the Advocate Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM).
The award honors an STFM member for outstanding work in political advocacy at the local, state or national level. Kruse served as president of STFM from 2011-14. He currently serves on the board of directors. Previously, he was STFM’s legislative affairs committee chair and its representative to the AAMC Group on Residency Affairs.
Kruse’s nominator Mary N. Hall, MD, wrote, “With the use of humor, he helped us understand the need to work together to speak with one voice for family medicine while maintaining our individual identities and unique strengths. Jerry has worked tirelessly for family medicine and primary care at the state and national levels; not for the disciplines’ sake, but to ensure a strong foundation of primary care for the people of this country. He influenced a multitude of students, resident and faculty to become active in advocating for family medicine and a primary care workforce.” Hall is Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice President of the Division of Medical Education for the Carolinas HealthCare System.
Kruse is a national advocate for innovation in medical education and the advancement of health care systems. His focus is to fulfill the Triple Aim + 1: medical education and health care that are more effective, efficient, equitable and enjoyable for all. Kruse embraces the rapid changes in technology and communication, in health care delivery, in medical education, and in biomedical research. 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 professor and chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine (1997-2013). In 2007, he was appointed to the Council on Graduate Medical Education, the multi-specialty advisory committee that reports to the U.S. Congress and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Kruse most recently received the University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and New York Academy of Family Physicians Max Cheplove Award in 2015, and the Brown University Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians Elise M Colletta Educational Leadership Award in 2016.
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).
He is a member of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP), North American Primary Care Research Group, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Adams County Medical Society and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He was named IAFP’s Family Physician Teacher of the Year in 1991.
