Scholarship established in honor of founding Medical Partnership Campus Dean

The AU/UGA Medical Partnership has announced the establishment of the Barbara L. Schuster Medical Partnership Scholarship, named in honor of Schuster, who recently stepped down as the founding campus dean after almost seven years of service.

To date, more than $40,000 in gifts and pledges have been secured from alumni, students, faculty, staff, physicians, hospitals, and friends of the Medical Partnership.

“It is a testament to Dean Schuster and her leadership that so many have responded so quickly and generously to this scholarship,” said interim Campus Dean Leslie Petch Lee.  “One of her top priorities during her tenure was supporting students, and this scholarship was an obvious way for the Medical Partnership community to demonstrate their appreciation for all that she accomplished.”

Schuster, the first Medical Partnership Campus Dean, arrived in November 2008.  Her first goal was to prepare to welcome 40 students who would be arriving in August 2010.  She oversaw hiring faculty and staff, preparing a building undergoing renovation to house the program, developing an innovative medical school curriculum, connecting with UGA faculty and the medical community, and recruiting potential students and interested community volunteers and supporters.

Dean Schuster’s vision for the Partnership in those early days have come to fruition almost seven years later. The Medical Partnership is now well integrated into northeast Georgia, with over 450 community physicians teaching over 160 medical students.  In July, the first 10 residents will arrive in Athens to begin their training at the AU/UGA Medical Partnership program at St. Mary’s Health System.  The first clinical translational research facility is scheduled to open in early fall 2015.

Before joining the Medical Partnership, Dean Schuster served as professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Wright State University since 1995, stepping down as chair in 2007 to pursue the AAMC sabbatical.  Previously she served for 15 years on the faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York, where she also completed medical school and an internal medicine residency.  She completed a Public Health Service Primary Care Policy Fellowship in Bethesda, MD in 1994.

She has served as medical director of the University Health Service at the University of Rochester, medical director of the University Medicine-Pediatrics Practice at Wright State University and president of Wright State’s faculty practice plan. At both institutions, she worked with graduate medical education programs where residents learned at multiple hospitals. The University of Rochester’s internal medicine/pediatric training program she directed has named an award in her honor.

Individuals interested in supporting the Barbara L. Schuster Medical Partnership Scholarship can make an online donation at gail.uga.edu/Schuster-scholarship or mail a check made payable to the University of Georgia Foundation and addressed to Alison Bracewell McCullick, AU/UGA Medical Partnership, 108 Spear Road, Athens, Georgia 30602.