Dr. William “Bill” Wadland, spent 20 years serving as chair of the Department of Family Medicine. Now retired and living in Charlevoix, Bill and his wife Betty established the College of Human Medicine Rural Medical Education Endowment.
The endowment will offer financial support to students pursuing a rural medical education at MSU.
According to Andrea Wendling, MD Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Director of Rural Medicine, “Many of our rural students come from rural communities, they are first-generation or economically disadvantaged. All the students who sign up for training in the rural environment know it’s going to be little tougher; but they also understand it’s the only way to know what their lives will be like as rural physicians, practicing in a low resource area. Having the Wadland’s support is a way to acknowledge to students: look, we know this is harder path, to be educated in a remote rural area,” Wendling added. “But now, if it gets really hard, we can make life a little easier for you … and that’s really meaningful.”
