Award-winner’s long career nurtures patients, learners and family medicine’s next leaders
Jan. 14, 2026, David Mitchell — It took William Schwab, MD, a long time to figure out his place in the world. Once he found it, he never wandered.
“Academic medicine is an opportunity to periodically reinvent yourself, and you don’t have to leave your practice or move your family,” said Schwab, who received the AAFP’s 2025 Thomas W. Johnson Award for Career Contributions to Family Medicine Education following his four-decade career in the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. “I’ve been able to touch a lot of different things in academic medicine. I loved everything I did.”
Schwab joined Wisconsin’s faculty in 1985, two years after graduating from residency, and spent the rest of his career there. He has served UW in a variety of roles—including residency program director, department vice chair for education, interim chair and the school’s assistant dean for graduate medical education—while also serving in numerous local, state and national leadership positions.
His 58-page curriculum vitae might seem an unlikely list of accomplishments for a man who dropped in and out of college before setting his sights on a career in family medicine.
Finding meaning in ‘this thing called family practice’
When Schwab arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1971, he had a keen interest in political advocacy and a desire to stop the Vietnam War but lacked a clear vision of what to do with himself.
“I was an accidental tourist in health care,” said Schwab, who later quit school and worked at the University of Wisconsin Hospital as a nursing assistant and unit clerk. “Did I have a thought about my long-term future? No. I wanted to do something that made sense and had meaning. When I came upon family medicine, it felt like it had meaning. I could do something that is intellectually challenging and serves people in a unique way.”
Family medicine was recognized as a specialty in 1969, but it took time to grow. Schwab was intrigued, a few years later, when a friend told him that her brother was a resident in “this thing called family practice” at a different local hospital.
At his own hospital, Schwab asked about this new specialty that allowed physicians to see patients in clinics and hospitals, perform procedures, deliver babies, and care for entire families regardless of age and gender. He was met with skepticism and blank stares.
“People didn’t know what family medicine was,” Schwab said. “There was no internet, none of that stuff. To find out about this specialty, I had to dig. When I did, I thought, ‘If I could do family medicine, that’s exactly what I’d want to do.’”
Nominations close soon for several AAFP awards
A new, streamlined process makes it easy to nominate yourself or peers for AAFP awards that spotlight leadership, mentorship and teaching, service and community engagement, and career longevity and special accomplishments. Nominations for the Thomas W. Johnson Award for Career Contributions to Family Medicine Education and other recognitions close Feb. 15.
At that time, applicants could pursue medical school without an undergraduate degree. Schwab, with years of hospital work experience, involvement in community activities and a solid academic record, was accepted at multiple schools and chose Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.
“It was fabulous and the right fit for me because it had an atypical curriculum and was known for what were called ‘bent arrows’—people who hadn’t known they would be doctors all their lives but had done other things. It just worked out. It clicked.”
Mentors and mentoring in family medicine
Schwab found excellent role models in the new specialty. The family medicine chair at Case Western was Jack Medalie, MD, who had been recruited to start the Department of Family Medicine after serving as the first chairman of family medicine at Tel Aviv University. During residency at the University of Virginia, Schwab’s mentor was Lewis Barnett Jr., MD, who was the department chair and an early president of the American Board of Family Medicine.
“They were great people who meant a lot to me,” he said.
Schwab found that his hospital experience also made a difference.
“Being a nursing assistant and unit clerk over a five-year period helped me understand the lives of the people who were coming in for care,” he said. “When I was a third-year medical student going on rotations, I knew how a hospital worked. When I walked into a room with a patient, I was comfortable and it seemed that the residents and faculty mistook that for meaning I was intelligent. They thought, ‘Oh, that medical student, he’s really good.’ But it was because it was a familiar and comfortable environment for me to connect with patients. And I made the residents’ lives easier because I had unit clerk skills.”
Schwab realized he liked mentoring and served as a chief resident at UVA.
“Facilitating what other people were doing and helping them be better was really appealing to me,” he said. “I like to teach. I like getting up in front of people and contributing what I think, and being in the clinical situation with residents and teaching them. Your patients teach you, and then you’re able to share that and channel that to residents, students and others.”
Focus on developmental and physical disabilities
After residency, Schwab moved to rural West Virginia for two years to fulfill a National Health Service Corps commitment. The work was satisfying, but the health care needs of his son, who had cerebral palsy, necessitated a move to an urban setting. The change opened the door to teaching opportunities and a return to Wisconsin.
His son’s condition also piqued his interest in developmental delays and disabilities, leading to grants, research and a different kind of practice.
“About a third of my patients were children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities,” he said. “It was a privilege to do that work and then to share and teach about it so people could be more effective in caring for those populations. Family physicians are ideally suited for the care of people with disabilities.”
Listening to patients as partners in their health care
For three decades, Schwab served on the board of directors of the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care. The organization, which he helped develop, aims to advance the concept of health care professionals collaborating with patients and families.
“Why did I want to be a family physician?” Schwab said. “I wanted to help people. So, I wanted to tell them what to do so they’d be healthier. What I came to learn was maybe I should focus on listening to them. Maybe I should learn how to partner with them, and maybe we should do ‘with’ care rather than ‘to’ and ‘for’ care.”
Schwab has been involved with Family Voices of Wisconsin, which helps families navigate health care and support services for children with disabilities and special health care needs, for decades and served on its board for 15 years.
He also was the longtime director of the Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program, which provides funding for educational activities with the goal of training more physicians to meet the state’s rural workforce needs.
“Having my base of practice was always key,” he said. “Having the experience of one-on-one teaching with residents and students, precepting, and delivering babies was essential. From those experiences came roles of leader of this and director of that, but if you don’t have that foundation, you can’t do a good job of leading. Clinical practice was hugely satisfying. Mentoring students, residents and faculty was incredibly meaningful, too, because it’s what sustains our profession and our discipline. And that’s essential.”
Get out of the way of emerging leaders
Schwab retired in 2024 but remains involved at UW as professor emeritus. He also has transitioned out of leadership roles.
“The next generation of family physicians of people must be the ones shaping the future,” he said. “One of the great things about being a teacher is nurturing the careers of other people. But the best way to nurture their careers can be to get the hell out of their way.
“When you look at my CV, you might say, ‘This guy couldn’t stay in one position.’ I loved being a residency program director. In many ways that was the best job I ever had. But there was somebody else who was hugely talented, had the energy, and it was the right time in her career to do that in our program. I didn’t want her leaving and doing something else. And that transition, like others, ended up opening wonderful new opportunities for me that I hadn’t anticipated.
“I had a fabulous career. I loved everything I did, but it’s like having a great meal. You get up from the table at some point. It doesn’t mean you didn't enjoy like it. It just means you’re satisfied.”