William Schwab, MD
Director, Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program
William E. Schwab, MD (he/him) – is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and is Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He served as interim department chair in 2020-2021. A native of Madison, Bill attended the University of Wisconsin as an undergraduate and graduated from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He went on to complete his family practice residency at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. After residency, he worked as a family physician at a community health center in the coal fields of southern West Virginia. Bill joined the DFMCH faculty in 1985 and has been a clinically active family physician at the department’s Northeast Family Medical Center since then. A past director of the Madison Residency Program, his current responsibilities include supporting faculty, staff, and learners in the DFMCH’s multiple fellowship and residency programs as well its medical student education activities. He additionally directs the Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program and is an advisor within the HRSA-funded Rural Residency Program Development Technical Assistance Center located at the University of North Carolina. He is also co-lead of the AMA Foundation – LGBTQ+ Health Fellowship Program that is based in the DFMCH. Bill is a nationally recognized leader in patient- and family-centered care as well as in medical education about the care of children and adults with chronic illness and disabilities. He is a member of the senior teaching faculty of the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care and serves on its Board of Directors. He has led federally funded projects on the primary care of people with autism and on developmental screening. Bill has been the recipient of the Humanism in Medicine Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine jointly with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the Educator of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, and the Baldwin E. Lloyd, MD, Clinical Teacher of the Year Award from the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. He is committed to mutually beneficial partnerships with patients, families, and communities to assure welcoming health care for all, and to learner-centered educational programs.