UA Professor Receives National Rural Medicine Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. John R. Wheat, professor of community and rural medicine in The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, has been named the 2004 Stueland Scholar by the National Farm Medicine Center of the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wis.

The award recognizes leadership and significant contributions in improving medical and health care for rural and agricultural populations. Wheat spoke earlier this month at Froehlke Conference Center in Marshfield on “Alabama Agromedicine: A Decade of Rural Medicine and Agricultural Health Outreach,” as part of the Grand Rounds series.

The Stueland Scholar honoree is chosen by the Stueland Endowment Committee. The award is given annually to honor the late Dr. Dean Stueland, who served Marshfield Clinic and its patients as an administrator, clinician, educator and researcher, and was also medical director of the National Farm Medicine Center.

Wheat teaches at UA and sees patients at University Medical Center. He grew up in rural Alabama (Sumter and Autauga Counties) and has committed himself to increasing the numbers of rural students who enter medical and health professions, as well as preparing them to return to rural areas as successful professional and community leaders.

Wheat is the founder and director of the UA rural medical scholar pipeline, which includes rural scholar programs for high school students, minority high school graduates throughout their college careers, college students, pre-med students, and medical students. An integral part of the pipeline is the physician-based preceptor program for rural medical scholars. Wheat has also been successful in obtaining research funding to enable these students to pursue rural health projects.

Wheat is active in several local and national medical societies, is a past-chairman of the North American Agromedicine Consortium, and is currently co-chairman of the Rural Medical Educators Group of the National Rural Health Association.

Previous Stueland Scholars include Dr. Lynn Goldman of Johns Hopkins University (2001), Dr. John May of the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (2002), and Dr. Steve Kirkhorn of the National Farm Medicine Center (2003).

The UA College of Community Health Sciences is the Tuscaloosa branch of the UA School of Medicine.