Department History

(In reverse dated chronological order)

• In 2008, F. David Schneider became Chairman of the renamed department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Schneider joined the department from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio where he was professor of family and community medicine and vice chairman of the department.  He was also president of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, and held several leadership roles in the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Nationally recognized for his work with the Academy on Violence and Abuse where he was the founding member, president and board chairman, Dr. Schneider also served as co-director of the UT Center for Violence Prevention. He received his B.A. from Boston University College and his MD from Boston University School of Medicine in 1987.  He completed his internship and residency at Duke Family Medicine Residency Program and a fellowship in academic family medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he earned an MSPH in epidemiology.
• In 2007, the department opened the Family Medicine Practice at the University Club Towers in Richmond Heights, MO. 
• In 2006, an affiliation agreement was reached with the Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation to manage the clinical operations of the Saint Louis University Family Practice Residency Program in Belleville. Also in 2006, David Pole, M.P.H. consolidated the predoctoral division and AHEC program office into the Division of Community Health Promotion.
• In 2005, Leigh Tenkku, Ph.D., was named Director for Research.  Dr. Tenkku began in 2002 providing research and grant support to the department while completing her doctorate. Her research interest focuses on the relationship between mental illness and pregnancy outcomes, the epidemiology of fetal alcohol syndrome, alcohol exposed pregnancies, and developing clinical research studies with academic faculty. Also in 2005, Pamela Xaverius, Ph.D., joined the research faculty. Dr. Xaverius was the Missouri State Maternal and Child Epidemiologist and has particular interest in the areas of preconception care and other health disparities in the health of women, children and families.
• In 2004, the department's training grants in predoctoral education and research were renewed for another three-year cycle. Work began on expanding the required family medicine clerkship from four to six weeks.
• In 2004, E. Charles Robacker, M.D., became the program director for the SLU/St. Elizabeth's Family Medicine Residency Training Program in Belleville, Illinois, a joint United States Air Force and civilian family medicine residency training program sponsored by Saint Louis University School of Medicine at St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Dr. Robacker began strengthening the residency program by improving recruitment, forming partnerships with other organizations in the community around key areas of residency development, and hiring non-family medicine physicians to help with service and educational needs in the residency program. Additionally, under the direction of Dr. Robacker, residency faculty were successful in obtaining a primary care residency training grant to refocus the program's mission on care of the underserved, particularly in rural areas and strengthen behavioral science training, bioterrorism preparedness, and training in geriatrics.
• In 2003, Robert Nicholson, Ph.D., joined the department as our first full-time research faculty. Dr. Nicholson came to Saint Louis University from Brown University where he successfully developed his research interest in the behavioral management of headaches in the primary care and specialty settings.
• In 2003, Margaret Ulione, R.N., Ph.D., director of the research division, is named Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the department, adding the predoctoral division and the behavioral health division to her responsibilities. With other faculty in the department, Dr. Ulione is responsible for directing the Biostatistics and Epidemiology section of Patient, Physician, Society I, greatly improving student satisfaction in that course.
• In 2002, Richard Schamp, M.D. joined the department to become medical director for the Alexian Brothers Community Service Program for All Inclusive Care of the Elderly in south St. Louis. The ABCS PACE program is an innovative program which manages nursing home eligible seniors in the community who are on Medicare and Medicaid. Under Dr. Schamp's leadership, the program has greatly improved outcomes, particularly regarding end-of-life care, while reducing hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
• The department's first clinical practice opened with three family physician faculty in January of 2002. Located in southwest St. Louis County at the Des Peres Medical Arts Pavilion (next to Tenet-Des Peres Hospital), the practice was named the Primary Care and Prevention Center to emphasize the vital role prevention plays in improving patients' health. Utilizing an "open-access" model of scheduling and an electronic (computerized) medical record, physicians can provide easily accessible primary care and preventive services that are of the highest quality.
• Mark B. Mengel, M.D., M.P.H. accepted the chairman position in 2000. With the goal of assuming a nationally recognized role as a leader in Community and Family Medicine, Dr. Mengel led the effort to obtain several grants that strengthened the predoctoral (medical student teaching) division, established a new research division, and a new SLU Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program office. The SLU AHEC program office supports the effort of the School of Medicine to recruit underrepresented minorities to the health professions, develops interdisciplinary curriculum on care of the underserved and offers targeted Continuing Medical Education to health professionals who practice in underserved areas.
• In 2002, through the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta awarded the department a contract to establish the Midwest Regional Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Training Center, a collaboration between the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Missouri Institute of Mental Health, University of Missouri-Columbia, and the St. Louis ARC. The mission of the Midwest Regional Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Training Center is to train healthcare professionals in the recognition, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and alcohol exposed pregnancies.
• In 1997, a required clerkship in Family Medicine for medical students was established. Developed and managed by Michael Railey, M.D., the clerkship tripled the percentage of graduates who elect Family Medicine as a career from Saint Louis University upon graduation. The Family Medicine clerkship quickly became a highly rated required clerkship at the medical school.
• The department assumed sponsorship of the Family Practice Residency program at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville, IL in 1997. This program combines United States Air Force and Saint Louis University faculty and features the full spectrum of training for its fourteen residents per year. The program is noted for excellence in informatics, procedural training, and rural medicine training.
• In 1996, our name is changed to the Department of Community and Family Medicine to acknowledge the expanding role of Family Medicine in the department.
• In 1995, Dr. Coe developed a new Behavioral Medicine division. Under the direction of Ron Margolis, Ph.D., the behavioralists formed the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute as their clinical practice site.
• 1992 saw the establishment of residency programs in Occupational and Preventive Medicine. Combined, twenty-four physicians have graduated from the two programs [sixteen from Occupational Medicine and eight from Preventive Medicine (with three of those eight from the combined Family Practice/Preventive Medicine programs with Forest Park)].
• David Campbell, M.D., M.S., Director of the Deaconess Family Practice Residency Program, was appointed associate chair in 1992. The department began its affiliation with Deaconness Hospital's (now Forest Park) Family Practice Residency Program. Faculty at Forest Park play an important role in developing Family Medicine within the department during the 1990s.
• Rodney Coe, Ph.D. became chair in 1989. Dr. Coe sped the development of the department through numerous new initiatives over his 10-year term as chair. He also continues his own research in geriatrics and doctor-patient communication.
• The department was founded in 1969 under the direction of Max Pepper, Ph.D. with an innovative curriculum in Community Medicine featuring teams of first year medical students interacting with local communities in St. Louis to assess and improve community health.

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