Steven Brown receives Zervanos leadership award
Steven Brown, MD, director of the Family Medicine Residency – Phoenix program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, has received the Nikitas J. Zervanos Outstanding Program Director Award.
The award honors a program director who demonstrates leadership and advancement of the specialty, mentors residents and medical students, and provides service to the community and to family medicine organizations. The American Academy of Family Physicians and the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors gave the award to Brown during a ceremony in Kansas City, Mo., in March.
Steven Brownd, MD, celebrates his Nikitas J. Zervanos Outstanding Program Director Award with his son, Andrew, and wife Molly.
Photo courtesy of Steven Brown, MD.
“It means so much to me to receive this award recognizing the importance of what we've built here at our Family Medicine Residency,” said Brown. “I've always been surrounded by amazing people here providing incredible care and learning how to improve the health of communities throughout Arizona.”
Residents in the program praised Brown’s dedication and called him an inspiration and powerful advocate for family medicine.
“Dr. Brown is a fierce advocate and educator when it comes to addressing social determinants of health and health inequity in the community and the role of the primary care physician in doing so,” said Haley Hochstein, DO, a chief resident who is set to graduate from the program this year. “He has dedicated so much of his time identifying barriers to caring for our underserved patients in the Phoenix community, and the residents he mentors are thankful for his guidance.”
Jacob Anderson, DO, director of the college’s Family Medicine Residency – Desert, a program similar to Brown’s that operates in a different area, wrote in his nomination letter that Brown leads by example.
“I count myself among a vast group of those who are better family physicians, leaders and teachers thanks to the guidance and, most importantly, the example of Dr. Brown,” said Anderson, who has worked with Brown for more than 10 years, first as a resident and then as a faculty member within the Phoenix program.
Brown said his philosophy has long been to encourage residents and medical students to give back to the communities they serve and to do so in new and innovative ways. Under his leadership, the program created the American Family Physician Podcast, which averages more than 40,000 downloads per month and presents unbiased, transparent takes on the topics covered in the American Family Physician, the most read journal in primary care. Additionally, the program partnered with St. Mary’s Food Bank and Sun Produce to establish the Banner Family Food Pantry in April 2023 to provide easier access to healthy foods for those in need.
Brown said creating a collaborative, positive culture has always been important to him.
“Our program is always working to improve the delivery of evidence-based primary care in a way that is more satisfying for physicians and patients,” he said. “Building effective multidisciplinary teams can help accomplish this goal and can help doctors feel joy in their work.
“We’d love to continue to inspire more medical students to recognize that family medicine is a way to provide amazing, continuous, comprehensive care in the context of community.”
A version of this story originally appeared on the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix website.