Dr. Jerry E. Kruse, has been named chair of the department of family and community medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. A professor of family and community medicine and director of the School's family practice residency program in Quincy, Kruse has served as interim chair for the last year.

"As interim chair, Dr. Kruse has already shown he is the right person for this important department chair," said Dr. Carl J. Getto, dean and provost. "We're lucky to have someone so dedicated to primary care and with a broad-base in medical education. He is committed to continue improving and extending our family practice programs based in Carbondale, Decatur, Quincy and Springfield."

Kruse joined SIU in 1984 as an assistant professor and assistant director of the Quincy program. He completed a two-year Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in academic family practice as well as a master's in public health at the University of Missouri School of Medicine (1984), where he also completed his three-year residency in family practice (1982). He earned his medical and bachelor's degrees at the University of Missouri at Columbia (1979, 1975).

He is board certified as a diplomate by the American Board of Family Practice and the National Board of Medical Examiners and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He is a member of the Association of Family Practice Residency Directors, Illinois Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP), North American Primary Care Research Group, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Adams County Medical Society and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He has had several articles published in national medical journals. He was named IAFP's Family Physician Teacher of the Year in 1991.

A native of Salisbury, Mo., Kruse and his wife, Lois Gebhardt Kruse, have three children, Emily, Julia and Anna.

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