The Bishop Society is a community of experienced senior leaders in STFM and is intended to recognize senior leaders in academic family medicine, to provide a forum for them to interact with one another, and contribute to STFM’s mission.
The Bishop Society serves as a resource to STFM and the community of academic family medicine. The Society hosts an annual Bishop Lecture at each STFM Annual Spring Conference to discuss current challenges facing our discipline.Bishop Society members may also be:
To recognize and honor STFM members who have made distinguished career contributions to academic family medicine
To create a forum for these leaders to interact and communicate with one another, and to work on projects and activities at the request of STFM leaders
To encourage senior leaders to remain actively involved in STFM even for those who have assumed leadership roles outside of the discipline
To create a resource for mentorship and leadership training for STFM members, and to create a resource for counsel and advice for STFM leaders
The Bishop Society is intended to serve as a professional home for mid- and senior-career faculty who have held multiple leadership positions within and outside of family medicine. The following criteria will be used to select new Bishop Society members:
To apply or nominate another member, please send the following materials to Molly Roudebush, STFM Director of Communications & Engagement, by August 31 at mroudebush@stfm.org:
The Bishop Society Selection Committee* selects up to five new Bishop Society members annually. Nominees not selected are reconsidered for 3 years after the nomination.
*The Bishop Society Selection Committee includes the 3 leaders of the Bishop Society, the immediate past chair of the Bishop Society, the immediate STFM past president, the STFM executive director/CEO, and up to two Bishop Society general members.
The Bishop Society is led by a chair and two co-chairs, who are recommended by the Bishop Society members and approved by the STFM Nominations Committee. These leadership roles have 3-year terms, which may be renewed upon approval by the STFM Nominations Committee. An STFM Board member will be appointed by the STFM president to serve as liaison to the Bishop Society.
Current Leaders
*deceased
On August 2, 2018, the STFM Board of Directors approved a proposal to create the Bishop Society as a platform for recognition and interaction of senior leaders among STFM’s members. This proposal was made by the 30 previous recipients of the STFM-sponsored Bishop Fellowship, with John Saultz, MD, as the lead author.The Bishop Fellowship was created by a generous donation from the estate of F. Marian Bishop to the STFM Foundation and accepted its first class in 2001. After funding for the program was discontinued, the last class of fellows completed the program in 2016.Since the beginning of the program, current and former Bishop Fellows have met each year at the STFM annual meeting under the leadership of the fellowship director, Robert Graham, MD. The purpose of these meetings has been to allow former fellows to remain in contact with one another and discuss issues related to the fellowship and leadership in academic family medicine. With the end of the fellowship, the group looked for models so the community could continue and recognize senior leaders in academic family medicine and contribute to STFM’s mission. The group’s plan was approved by the STFM Board.The STFM Board invited individuals to be founding members of the Bishop Society:
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