Katherine G. Stephens Elected President of the Association for Hospital Medical Education

COLUMBIA, SC – June 4, 2009 – Katherine Gulledge Stephens has been elected president of the Association for Hospital Medical Education (AHME) for a two-year term. Stephens is the third non-physician to serve as president Founded in 1956, AHME is a national, non-profit professional organization involved in the continuum of hospital-based medical education: undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. AHME’s more than 600 members represent hundreds of teaching hospitals, academic medical centers, and consortia nationwide. 

Stephens has served as vice president for Medical Education at Palmetto Health in Columbia, S.C. since 1998.  Her responsibilities include administrative, operational, accreditation, and financial oversight of graduate medical education programs. Other areas of supervision include outpatient clinics, clinical research, continuing medical education, library services and the medical simulation center. Palmetto Health’s largest hospitals are home to 12 medical and dental residencies and nine fellowship programs with more than 230 residents.  

Stephens earned a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina; she is currently pursuing her doctorate in Educational Leadership.  She is a board-certified Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). Stephens has participated in several state and local leadership programs and received the Jacobus Leadership Award presented by the Leadership Columbia program.

Stephens also has served on several community and civic boards. She is a past chair of the South Carolina Wildlife Federation (SCWF) and recently received its F. Bartow Culp Distinguished Service Award. She is married and has two daughters and one granddaughter.