DEWITT BALDWIN

1922 - 2022

BALDWIN--DeWitt C., Jr. Physician-Educator and Former College President. Born July 19, 1922, Bangor, ME. DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr., M.D., Sc.D. (hon.), DHL (hon.), a longtime advocate and activist for humanism and professionalism in medicine, whose work broadly impacted interprofessional education and practice in the health sciences, died January 5, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois of natural causes. He was 99. An internationally known physician, educator, and researcher, Dr. Baldwin wrote and conducted research on medical education, physician well-being, moral development, medical ethics, rural health, interprofessional health professions education, behavioral sciences, humanistic medicine, child development, psychology, and dentistry during a career that spanned 70 years. His written body of work encompassed more than 200 scholarly articles and several books. A pioneer and innovator, he was an early advocate for teaching social and behavioral sciences in medical and dental education. He was a founder and two-time president of the Association for the Behavioral Sciences and Medical Education, and in 2007 received its Lifetime Achievement Award. He began his teaching career at the University of Washington in the early 1950s as a pediatrician, and early on advocated for interprofessional health education. In 1972, he directed a unique program for students in 11 health fields at the University of Nevada, from college-entry to professional school graduation. Focused on team development and practice by students and faculty, the program remains a model for the field. In 1978, he started the Office of Rural Health in Nevada, which developed first-time health services in 20 communities and improved services in 19 others over the next three years, an accomplishment for which he has been honored several times. Dr. Baldwin was an interdisciplinary thinker, and held academic appointments in pediatrics, psychiatry, family medicine, community medicine, behavioral sciences, medical education, social dentistry, and human behavior and child development at eight medical schools, two dental schools, three graduate schools, and two schools of social work. He was a member of the founding faculties of the University of Connecticut and University of Nevada medical schools. In 1983, he was named Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno, before briefly serving as President of Earlham College. He returned to medical education research in 1986 at the American Medical Association, where he pioneered empirical studies on the disturbingly high prevalence of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, and psychological and physical abuse of medical students and residents during undergraduate and graduate medical education, advocating actively for changes in the learning and working environment. He joined the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2002, as Senior Scholar in Residence since 2008, where his work focused on improving residency education. Among many recognitions, Dr. Baldwin received an honorary Doctor of Science from the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (2003); a Doctor of Humane Letters from Rosalind Franklin University (2011); the John P. McGovern Award for Distinguished Service in the Health Sciences from the Association of Academic Health Centers (1997); and the Louis Gorin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health (1991). His contributions to interprofessional education, research, and practice were recognized by a Special Supplement of the Journal of Interprofessional Care, celebrating his seminal work in the field, and by creation of an annual Baldwin Award for the best scholarly article in the journal. He has been listed in multiple editions of "Who's Who in the World" and "Who's Who in America." In 2016, the ACGME and Gold Foundation established the DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. Award honoring exemplary institutions that foster respectful and supportive environments for medical education and patient care. Born in Maine, Dr. Baldwin was raised in Rangoon, Burma. At 10, he returned to the United States. He attended Blair Academy, Swarthmore College, Yale Divinity School, and Yale Medical School, graduating from the latter in 1949. He completed residencies at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Yale- New Haven Hospital in pediatrics, and in adult and child psychiatry at the University Hospital and Boston City Hospital. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Michele Baldwin, his two daughters, Lisa Baldwin and Mireille Payne, and four grandchildren.