Dr. Joseph J. Sreenan believes it is a privilege and responsibility to give back to his community. He and his wife Mary give to support scholarships for the Community Medicine track at Mercy Health — St. Rita’s Medical Center’s Undergraduate Medical Education program. Scholarships are vital for recruiting health professionals in our region.

“With this program, we aim to create a local pipeline of students for our residency programs. The goal is for students to be able to do their entire training for their career in medicine locally,” he says. “We’ve been very successful with retention of our residents.”

The community medicine track has been a collaboration with The Ohio State University College of Medicine since 2016. It seeks to fill provider positions in rural and underserved communities with physicians who come from similar places. These candidates better understand broader social determinants of health in those areas.

“Mercy Health’s significant contributions to providing compassionate care makes it a worthy organization to support,” he says. “When you are from a place like Lima, you really understand the idea of service to your community.”