Robert M. Centor, M.D., a professor of Medicine and regional dean for the Huntsville Regional Medical Campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine,has been elected to Mastership by the American College of Physicians, one of the highest honors available to internists.ACP mastership is conferred only on a select number of worthy candidates who are deemed distinguished through the practice of internal medicine. The ideal candidate “possesses strength of character, integrity, bravery, perseverance, compassion, devotion and steadiness, as well as clinical competence. Emphasis is placed on service as a mentor, advocacy for quality in internal medicine, commitment to social justice, deep interest in people and the creation of communities of medicine.”
He will be presented mastership in April at the ACP annual meeting.
“It’s an incredible honor to be named in such a prestigious group. When I was a young doctor, I never dreamed I would become an ACP Master alongside those physicians I looked up to as role models,” Centor said. “To be in this elite group with other physicians I admire and respect is very humbling and exciting.”
“I’m honored to congratulate Dr. Centor for this much-deserved achievement,” said Selwyn M. Vickers, M.D., senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the UAB School of Medicine. “Dr. Centor’s leadership at the Huntsville Regional Medical Campus is an example of excellence to his commitment in training the next generation of physicians to care for citizens in the state of Alabama.”
Centor has served the ACP in many capacities since joining the organization in 1978, including serving on the ACP’s Board of Regents since 2008. Earlier this year, he was installed as the 2014-2015 chair of the Board of Regents, the policy-making body for the ACP. He has served on many of ACP’s committees, including the Membership Committee, Finance Committee, Strategic Planning Committee and the Health and Public Policy Committee, which he chaired from 2009-2011. He was awarded the Laureate Award for outstanding service to medicine and ACP from the Alabama Chapter of ACP in 2009.
He is currently professor of Medicine and Regional Dean of the UAB School of Medicine Huntsville Regional Medical Campus. Previously, he held numerous positions at the Medical College of Virginia, where he earned his medical degree and also completed his residency.
Centor said he will receive his mastership alongside his colleague and friend Gustavo Heudebert, M.D., professor of Medicine and Medical Education and assistant dean of Graduate Medical Education, who was elected to ACP mastership last year.