STFM Member Rick Kellerman, MD is professor and chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine–Wichita, and past president and board chair, American Academy of Family Physicians. Rick has been an active member of STFM for 28 years.

Rick's Story

by Rick Kellerman, MD

When my program director, Dave Holden, MD, asked me to stay on as a faculty member after residency, I was honored that he would think of me as faculty. Later, I realized that he asked me to stay because of an acute faculty shortage in our program!

Through Dr. Holden's resourcefulness, I was able to attend my first STFM Annual Spring Conference in 1981 at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego and had the privilege of meeting a number of impactful early family medicine education leaders, including Ed Shahady, Robert Taylor, Ed Ciriacy, Ted Phillips, Marian Bishop, and Gayle Stephens. 

My STFM family grew even larger after receiving the STFM New Faculty Scholar Award when I was introduced to mentors like Joe Scherger, Nik Zervanos, Tom Wolff, Alan David, Marge Bowman, Betsy Garrett, Mac Baird, and John Frey. Over the years, I have received support from current STFM staff members Stacy Brungardt and Hope Wittenberg, and Roger Sherwood, Priscilla Noland, as well as former AAFP staff member Bob Graham.

My relationships with these encouraging and uplifting family medicine leaders have, in turn, inspired my interest in the development of new young faculty. I am a better teacher, academic, mentor, advisor, leader, and family physician because of STFM.

Paying It Forward

In the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine–Wichita, STFM membership is a faculty benefit. Along with the Department of Family and Community Medicine supporting the STFM Foundation financially, we encourage our faculty to attend STFM conferences, because they return inspired by what others in family medicine are accomplishing through education, educational innovations, and planned future endeavors. Two of our own faculty members (Kari Nilsen, PhD, 2018, and Laura Mayans, MD, 2016) have benefitted from receiving the New Faculty Scholar award, and we often interview authors about articles published in Family Medicine during departmental teleconferences.

How You Can Help 

Transforming the future of family medicine would not be possible without the generosity of Rick Kellerman and countless other STFM members and supporters. Through both member and departmental donations, the STFM Foundation is able to support STFM's priority to develop the pipeline for academic family medicine.