Two former WVSOM deans received national awards

Two former WVSOM deans received national awards

Two osteopathic physicians who served as WVSOM’s vice president for academic affairs and dean — Craig Boisvert, D.O., and Lorenzo Pence, D.O. — were recognized in April with awards from the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP).

At the organization’s annual convention in New Orleans, La., ACOFP presented Boisvert with its Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors outstanding individuals who have demonstrated career-long service to patients, osteopathic family medicine and ACOFP.

The organization presented Pence with its Excellence in Advocacy Award, which recognizes family medicine physicians who have significantly contributed their time and talents to health care policy issues at the local, state or federal levels on behalf of his or her profession and patients.

Boisvert, who continues to assist with WVSOM’s osteopathic principles and practice labs, suture labs and CPR course, was the school’s dean from 2014 to 2021. He said he was honored to accept ACOFP’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I have known many of the individuals who have received it in the past and it’s an impressive group, so I’m grateful to be included,” he said. “I was surprised when the state society nominated me, and even more surprised when the president of ACOFP called and told me I’d been selected as this year’s recipient.”

Boisvert received a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Vermont and a Doctor of Osteopathy degree from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Maine. He completed a family medicine residency at Lancaster Osteopathic Hospital in Lancaster, Pa., and a health policy fellowship through the American Osteopathic Association.

Following his residency, Boisvert, a Vermont native, moved to Des Arc, Ark., where he worked for a federally qualified health center, eventually becoming medical director of four clinics. He joined WVSOM in 1988 as an associate professor of family medicine, and within a few years was chair of the section of family practice and president-elect of ACOFP’s West Virginia society.

Boisvert stayed with WVSOM for three and a half decades, becoming the school’s associate dean for predoctoral clinical education in 2013 and vice president for academic affairs and dean in 2014, a post he held until his 2021 retirement. Among his proudest accomplishments at WVSOM, he said, were helping to create physical diagnosis courses that later became the school’s Clinical Skills 1 and Clinical Skills 2 courses; clarifying items in WVSOM’s institutional policy; and helping the school successfully navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

While at WVSOM, Boisvert received the Osteopathic Principles and Practice Integration Teaching Award, the President’s Award for Excellence for Outstanding Clinical Sciences Faculty and the Outstanding Employee of the Year Award.

Boisvert’s service with ACOFP’s West Virginia society has been equally productive.

In addition to a year as the society’s president, he served multi-year terms on its Board of Directors during four different decades. As West Virginia’s delegate at the organization’s national convention for 14 years, he voted on ACOFP’s governing bylaws. He organized continuing medical education courses for the group and assisted with ACOFP-sponsored events at WVSOM.

He has been a fellow of ACOPF since 1992, an honor bestowed on family physicians displaying outstanding service in their careers, participating in civic and community activities, and making contributions through teaching, authorship, research or professional leadership.

Pence, who served as WVSOM’s dean from 2011 to 2014, said he owes his success to the colleagues, mentors and the osteopathic family he has had during his career.

“I appreciate this recognition of my path and the things I’ve been able to do, but none of us work in a vacuum,” Pence said. “There’s a lot of credit to be shared. I may be the one being recognized, but there were teams of great people with me along the way whom I couldn’t have done it without. I’m a family doctor, and I’m proud to have had that role. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

After earning a medical degree from WVSOM in 1985, he completed an internship and family medicine residency at Parkview Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, before establishing a private practice in Mount Jackson, Va. He returned to Toledo in the mid-1990s, where he served in various medical education roles at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, and as a regional assistant dean at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Pence joined WVSOM in 2003 as associate dean for graduate medical education, simultaneously serving as director of medical education and family medicine program director at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Ronceverte, W.Va. He was instrumental in helping to develop the Statewide Campus system that is still used to educate WVSOM’s third- and fourth-year students.

In 2011, following a year in an interim position, Pence became WVSOM’s vice president for academic affairs and dean. He helped develop the “patient presentation” curriculum that would be used at the school for the next decade.

Pence has advocated for the osteopathic profession through leadership in state and national associations and membership in numerous medical education committees. Among other positions, he was a trustee, vice president and president of West Virginia’s state society of ACOFP and served on the joint education and operations committees of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), American Osteopathic Association and American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. He is currently senior vice president of osteopathic accreditation for the ACGME, the organization that establishes educational standards to prepare physicians at the residency and fellowship levels to deliver high-quality medical care.