Trushaw, left, with Salser at the ceremony.

At the UAB Heersink School of Medicine Class of 2023 Student Awards Banquet, the Department of Family and Community Medicine awarded its annual G. Gayle Stephens, M.D., Award for Excellence in Family Medicine to graduate Elizabeth “Betty” Trushaw, M.D.

The award honors one medical student annually for excellence in interpersonal relationships, professionalism, overall academic performance, leadership qualities and the demonstrated desire to pursue a career in family medicine.

It is named in honor of G. Gayle Stephens, M.D., a pioneer in family medicine and the founder of one of the first twelve Family Practice residencies in the country in 1969 in Wichita, Kansas. He later served as the first Dean of the School of Primary Medical Care at Huntsville, Ala., and was then appointed chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine.

Stephens became a Professor Emeritus of Family and Community Medicine after his retirement in 1988. After his death in 2014, his legacy of investment and impact in family medicine has continued on.

This year’s recipient, Trushaw, will begin a residency with the Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency this summer. She matched into the program’s Urban track, which focuses on providing family medicine in urban underserved areas of Alabama.

B. Earl Salser, Jr., M.D., associate professor and director of medical student education for the Department of Family and Community Medicine, presented Trushaw with the award. Salser also directs the Highlands track of the Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency.