2025 IAFP President's Award

Editor's Note: You can also read coverage from the Austin Weekly News here. 

IAFP 2024-25 President, Kate Rowland, MD, FAAFP presented her IAFP President's Award to honor the legacy of the West Suburban Family Medicine Residency Program.

The Family Medicine Residency Program at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park was founded in 1971 by then-IAFP President Dr. Allison L. Burdick, Jr and quickly became one of the most sought-after training programs in the state and around the country.  The hospital in Oak Park borders the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, and most of the patients rely on Medicaid or are uninsured. 

“West Sub” graduates received extensive obstetrics training and experience, and many added a maternal child health fellowship with high-risk pregnancy and cesarean section delivery training. After West Suburban Medical Center lost their accreditation status, ultimately the residency closed in June with the class of 2025, while the classes of 2026 and 2027 found alternative programs to continue their training. The closing of West Suburban’s family residency program is a significant loss, particularly in a state that already struggles to recruit and retain family physicians, especially in underserved areas. 

Dr. Rowland chose to celebrate the legacy of the program and the many outstanding family physicians here today, across the state and beyond who trained there.  "West Suburban residents, graduates and faculty have served on our board, have been honored with state and national awards, and have always been engaged advocates and participants in the Academy. In fact, there are 140 West Suburban graduates in our current IAFP membership. In addition the 2025 Vincent Keenan Servant Leadership Award honoree graduated from West Sub in 2000.

Two current IAFP board members are recent West Suburban program graduates and board member Dr. Rebecca Maddrell helped present this award. 

"As a proud graduate of the program, I grew up as a physician within its walls. West Suburban shaped not only the doctor I would become, but the kind of colleague, leader, and advocate I strive to be today," said Maddrell. "The confidence, resilience, and clinical breadth we gained became the foundation for how we care for patients today."   

First, West Suburban delivered full-spectrum, rigorous training. Second, West Suburban was mission driven. Paired with PCC, it served the Austin and southwest Chicago communities with deep commitment and clarity of purpose. Every rotation, every long night, and every challenge was grounded in the belief that patients deserved the best care. It was a place where service wasn’t a slogan—it was the heartbeat of the program. Third, the people. West Suburban alumni practice everywhere: Indian reservations, county jails, FQHCs, private practices, academic centers, and rural clinics. 

Raj C. Shah, MD, who completed his training at West Suburban in 2000, adds. "They were amazing role models for how family physicians learn every day to become servant leaders at the intersection of patients, families, and communities."  Shah was also at the meeting as the receipient of the 2025 IAFP Vincent D. Keenan Servant Leadership Award.  

This President’s Award honors not a building or a curriculum, but a community of physicians and educators who built a program that shaped generations. IAFP Class of 2021 board member Dr. Scott Levin, who served as the West Suburban Program Director from 2005 until 2023 accepted the award on behalf of the program and said, "If you drop a stone in a lake, it ripples for quite some time and it's not really the stone that matters anymore. It's those ripples and the impact they can have across a wide spectrum, and that is what I'm thinking about right now." 

Former program directors Dr. Kenneth Blair and Dr. Kathie Walsh also attended.