The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences has set the standard for educating and training countless health care professionals who have improved health care across the state’s rural areas.
CCHS Rural Programs’ history started 30 years ago with the creation of the Rural Medical Scholars Program, a five-year medical education program exclusively for rural Alabama students who want to become physicians and practice in rural communities.
Dr. Drake Lavender, associate professor in the department of family, internal and rural medicine, has a unique perspective on the program’s evolution. While he now serves as director of CCHS Rural Programs, Lavender was one of its first graduates…