CHFM Announces Recipients of Annual Sandra L. Panther History of Family Medicine Fellowship                     

The Center for the History of Family Medicine (CHFM) announced today the recipients of the 2020 Sandra L. Panther Fellowship in the History of Family Medicine.

Allyssa Abel, MPH and Aaron George, DO have been awarded CHFM’s 10th Annual Fellowship in the History of Family Medicine for their project, “Reinvigorating the Visions of the Founders of Family Medicine.” On receiving the news that they had been awarded the fellowship, Ms. Abel commented that, “we are very excited to continue our project with support from and access to Center for the History of Family Medicine.”

Ms. Abel is a fourth-year medical student at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY. Dr. George is the Assistant Program Director at Meritus Family Medicine Residency Program. Dr. George is also a clinical associate professor at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa.

This fellowship project, “Reinvigorating the Visions of the Founders of Family Medicine,” will focus on connecting with and interviewing many of the founders and early leaders of the discipline of family medicine. The intent is to understand the roots of the profession, trajectory and path over the past five decades, and the direction family medicine should seek from here. By conducting this series of stimulating interviews with family medicine’s most influential historical figures, as well as having today’s young leaders of family medicine reflecting upon and writing about them, the hope is to put younger cohorts of family physicians in touch with the founders’ energy and vision.

The CHFM presently sponsors one $2,000 Fellowship in the History of Family Medicine each year. Named the Sandra L. Panther Fellowship in the History of Family Medicine in honor of former AAFP Foundation executive director, Sandra L. “Sandy” Panther, interested family physicians, residents, students, other health professionals, historians, scholars, educators, scientists and others are invited to apply for the 2020 Fellowship. For more information, please visit the fellowship page.

Housed at AAFP headquarters and administered by the non-profit AAFP Foundation, the Center for the History of Family Medicine serves as the principal resource center for the collection, conservation, study, exhibition, and dissemination of materials relating to the evolving history of the specialty of Family Medicine in the United States for the benefit of the specialty and the public. For more information on the Center, please contact Center staff via telephone at 1-800-274-2237 (ext. 6007), via fax at (913) 906-6095, or via e-mail at chfm@aafp.org.