Megan Rich, MD, MEd

The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) is pleased to announce that Megan Rich, MD, MEd, has been selected to receive its 2025 Family Medicine Educator of the Year award.

The OAFP annually presents the Family Medicine Educator of the Year Award to a family medicine educator who exhibits extraordinary, beyond-the-call-of-duty merit, encourages students to pursue the ideals of family medicine, and is an inspiring leader.

Dr. Rich is the program director for The Christ Hospital (TCH)/University of Cincinnati (UC) Family Medicine Residency Program, a professor of family and community medicine, and is co-medical director for UC’s student-run free clinic.

“Joy and passion in medical education are crucial to drawing in learners amidst concerns over burnout and workforce shortages,” explained award nominator Hillary Mount, MD. “These skills are embodied in the teaching style of Dr. Rich. Physician educators like her rally people together and inspire us to work towards positive change, even in the midst of uncertainty.”

Dr. Rich earned her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and completed residency at the TCH/UC Family Medicine Residency Program in 2010 where she was chief resident.

From 2013-16, Dr. Rich lead the UC College of Medicine’s newly created Longitudinal Primary Care Clerkship (LPCC) as course director. The LPCC pairs all 200+ medical students with an office-based primary care physician in a nationally unique program of longitudinal skills advancement that creates a base for the final two years of medical school.

“This is another example of the many ways Dr. Rich has been transformative as an educator,” said Jeffery Schlaudecker, MD, UC associate professor of family medicine. “Her leadership of this Clerkship created a solid foundation upon which the pre-clinical medical students are, to this day, acquainted with clinical medicine.”

Dr. Rich also completed a Family Medicine Physician Faculty Development Fellowship in Los Angeles, CA, before earning her Masters in Medical Education from UC/Cincinnati Children’s Hospital from 2016-20, while working at the residency program.

During this time, she oversaw the redesign of social medicine/social determinants of health curriculum, created faculty development curriculum, and built a new family medicine residency curriculum and evaluation, as well as a fellowship curriculum.

“Shortly after taking over as program director, she took on the enormous task of developing a new clinic-first initiative in the program, moving to a two-by-two curriculum redesign,” said Christopher Bernheisel, MD, former director of the TCH/UC Family Medicine Residency Program. “She started the process by implementing a faculty development curriculum—training the residency faculty on curriculum design and guiding everyone through the process for the new curriculum. Because of her excellent preparation and guidance, the residency program was able to implement the innovative curriculum despite the COVID pandemic.”

In addition to her curriculum expertise and dedication to family medicine education, Dr. Rich serves on the UC Department of Family and Community Medicine Strategic Leadership Group and Departmental Advisory Group, as well as the OAFP’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Workgroup. She has also applied and secured multiple grants, over $2 million in all, to help fund projects and programs that address community health, health equity, and DEI education.

“I’m in the business of planting seeds and it sometimes takes years for anything to sprout,” explained Dr. Rich. “I might not event get to see the sprouts, I just plant and hope.”

“I hope that graduates of the program will look back and know how well they were supported during these formative years. I hope that they remember how much I cared for them. I hope the foundation of residency training affords them the strength and the certainty to do what is right throughout their careers. I think those hopes mostly come to fruition. And that right there is a very great honor.”

The OAFP congratulates Dr. Rich for this much-deserved recognition as the Family Medicine Educator of the Year.

To learn more about the Family Medicine Educator of the Year award, please visit the OAFP website.

The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians is a statewide, professional association with more than 4,700 members, including practicing physicians, family medicine residents, and medical students. The scope of family medicine encompasses all ages, both sexes, and every disease entity. Family physicians provide comprehensive, continuing care to all members of the family. For more information, visit the OAFP website.

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