Brenham named Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education

Careyana Brenham, MD, has been selected as the new associate dean for graduate medical education (GME) at SIU School of Medicine. She succeeds Dr. Karen Broquet, who is transitioning to a new role with the school after an accomplished career in psychiatry and serving as associate dean for GME since 2001. 

Dr. Brenham is a family medicine physician and professor of family and community medicine at SIU School of Medicine. Since joining the school 20 years ago, she has also served as the residency program director at SIU Family Medicine in Springfield for 10 years while assuming other leadership initiatives. She was part of Family Medicine’s journey to become a Federally Qualified Health Care clinic and has helped to champion the expansion of patient care services to provide care for some of our most vulnerable populations. This includes clinical work with children with a history of abuse, patients with substance use disorder and members of the LGBTQIA community.
   
“Dr. Brenham has advanced the training and development of medical students, residents and faculty at SIU,” said Jerry Kruse, MD, dean and provost of SIU School of Medicine. “She firmly believes that training future physicians and specialists here at SIU is one of the best ways to serve the patients and communities of central and southern Illinois and beyond.” 

“As an alum of both SIU School of Medicine and a graduate of the SIU Family Medicine Residency Program in Springfield, she’s seen first-hand the wonderful educational and clinical opportunities that we can offer,” Kruse said.

“Working with residents is my passion, and I’m thrilled to be able to play an important part as they start the journey into medicine,” said Brenham. “These new physicians will get to work with the top faculty educators at SIU in their specialty programs.”

A Springfield native and mother of four daughters, Dr. Brenham has received numerous awards over the years, including the Illinois Academy of Family Medicine Teacher of the Year, the Don Thorp Child Advocate Award from the Child Advocacy Center, and she has twice won the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, sponsored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The award is presented annually to an SIU student and to a faculty member who demonstrate the ideals of outstanding compassion in the delivery of care, respect for patients and their families and health care colleagues, as well as demonstrated clinical excellence. She won it as a student in 2000 and as a faculty member in 2009.