SAVANNAH — Dr. Steven L. Carpenter, a physician and teacher at Memorial University Medical Center, is the 2013 recipient of the J. Willis Hurst Teaching Award.  The award honors a Georgia member or fellow in the American College of Physicians for outstanding teaching activities related to medical students and house staff.
Dr. J. Willis Hurst was the chair of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He earned worldwide recognition as a teacher. The award in his name was established in 1991.
Carpenter is an associate professor of medicine at Mercer University School of Medicine, a clinical assistant professor at the Medical College of Georgia and chairman of the department of internal medicine for Mercer University School of Medicine’s Savannah Campus. He also is a senior partner at the Center for Digestive and Liver Health in Savannah.
Carpenter attended the Medical College of Georgia. He did his residency training at Emory University Hospital and completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Michigan. He came to Savannah in 1996. From 2006 through 2011, Carpenter was director of the internal medicine residency program at Memorial University Medical Center. He and his wife, Deborah, have five children.
The Georgia chapter of the ACP also awarded Dr. Marilyn Lavallee the 2013 Community Teaching Award. The award recognizes physicians who volunteer their time, practice and knowledge to help prepare medical students and residents for their future in medicine.
Lavallee is an internal-medicine physician at Memorial Health University Physicians. She earned her medical degree from Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon and completed her residency training at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah.
The American College of Physicians is the nation’s largest medical-specialty organization. Its current membership includes more than 137,000 internal-medicine physicians and medical students.
Memorial Health is a two-state health-care organization serving a 35-county area in Southeast Georgia and southern South Carolina. The system includes its flagship hospital, a 622-bed academic medical center in Savannah; Memorial primary and specialty physician networks; a medical-education program; business and industry services; and NurseOne, a 24-hour call center.
To learn more, go to www.memorialhealth.com. You can follow Memorial at facebook.com/memorialhealth, twitter.com/mymemorial and youtube.com/memorialhealth.