ACLM pronounces 2026 Dr. Stephen Turner Residency Director and Faculty Scholarship recipients

The scholarships assist certification in life-style drugs for residency program administrators and school members all in favour of integrating life-style drugs into their residency packages.

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) have introduced the 15 recipients of the 2026 Dr. Stephen Turner Residency Director and Faculty Scholarship, which helps the combination of life-style drugs into medical residency packages nationwide.

The scholarships cowl the price of coaching and certification in life-style drugs, equipping residency program administrators and school with the arrogance, data and abilities to implement the Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum (LMRC) and prepare residents of their packages. The LMRC is a complete, relevant and versatile curriculum that prepares residents to make evidence-based life-style conduct interventions and qualify to take a seat for the ABLM life-style drugs certification examination upon residency completion.

The scholarships had been established via a beneficiant reward from Stephen Turner, MD, DipABLM, a Mayo Clinic nephrologist who was within the inaugural 2017 cohort to turn out to be licensed as a life-style drugs doctor. Included within the scholarship award are ACLM membership for one 12 months, registration for ACLM’s annual convention, enrollment within the Foundations of Lifestyle Medicine Board Review course and ABLM examination registration charges.  

Education within the six pillars of life-style drugs– optimum vitamin, bodily exercise, restorative sleep, stress administration, connectedness and avoidance of dangerous substances–has traditionally been missing all through medical schooling and coaching. Launched by ACLM in 2018, the LMRC helps fill the hole in life-style drugs, together with vitamin schooling, in graduate medical teaching programs.

Lifestyle drugs is a medical specialty that makes use of therapeutic life-style interventions as a major modality to deal with persistent situations together with, however not restricted to, cardiovascular illnesses, sort 2 diabetes and weight problems. Lifestyle medicine-certified clinicians are educated to use evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive life-style change to deal with and, when used intensively, typically reverse such situations. Applying the six pillars of life-style drugs additionally supplies efficient prevention for these situations.

“The future of healthcare depends on how we train today’s physicians,” mentioned ACLM Medical Director of Education Brenda Rea, MD, DrPH, PT, RDN, DipABLM, FACLM, Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist. “These scholarship recipients are helping ensure that the next generation of clinicians understands how to treat, reverse and prevent chronic disease using evidence-based lifestyle interventions. By bringing lifestyle medicine into residency training, they are equipping future physicians with the tools to address root causes and deliver the kind of whole-person care patients need and deserve.”

2026 Dr. Stephen Turner Residency Director and Faculty Scholarship Recipients

Allison Adams, MD
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Ky.

Ana Abril Arias, MD
Natividad Family Medicine Residency
Salinas, Calif.

Andrew Berta, MD
Chestnut Hill Family Medicine Residency
Philadelphia, Pa.

Christine Black-Langenau, DO
Bryn Mawr Family Medicine Residency
Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Mary C. Boyce, MD, FAAFP
Wesley Family Medicine Residency
Wichita, Kan.

Michael D. Cheshire, DO, FACOI, FACP, FNLA
WVU School of Medicine
Morgantown, W.Va.

Rosa J. Joseph, DO, MPH
FSU-BayCare Family Medicine Residency Program
Winter Haven, Fla.

Lucas T. Kane, DO
Cahaba Medical Care
Birmingham, Ala.

Sarah Stokes Kane, DO
Cahaba Medical Care
Birmingham, Ala.

Adan Romero, MD, DABOM
MLK Healthcare
West Hollywood, Calif.

Annashia Shera, MD, MS, FACP
University of New Mexico Division of General Internal Medicine
Albuquerque, N.M.

Christie M. Thomas, MD
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Miami, Fla.

Allan Wagner, DO
Community Memorial Healthcare
Ventura, Calif.

Blake Motley Watts, MD
Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program
Sugar Land, Texas

SarahKay Welch, DO
Adventist La Grange Family Medicine Residency
Chicago, Ill.

About ACLM®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation’s medical skilled society constructing the infrastructure to scale life-style drugs as the brand new customary of care. ACLM interprets evidence-based life-style interventions into schooling, certification, and implementation, equipping physicians, healthcare professionals, and programs of care to deal with the foundation causes of persistent illness. Since 2004, ACLM has educated greater than 100,000 well being professionals and made greater than 1.75 million hours of accredited persevering with schooling out there via programs and conferences for physicians and well being professionals. With tons of of institutional companions worldwide, ACLM helps healthcare transfer from a system designed to handle illness to 1 able to restoring well being.

SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine