A Champion for Public Health: PAMED Distinguished Service Award

Richard Wender, MD, a trailblazer in public health and family medicine, has been named the 2025 recipient of PAMED’s Distinguished Service Award and highest honor. With more than four decades of clinical practice and leadership, Dr. Wender has dedicated his career to advancing primary care, championing health equity, and transforming cancer prevention on both local and national levels.

As the Robert G. Dunlop Professor and Chair of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, Dr. Wender has led initiatives that have reshaped care delivery. Under his leadership, Penn launched its first Addiction Medicine fellowship, expanded residency programs, and rolled out a community-based COVID vaccination campaign. His department has also secured significant funding to address health disparities and strengthen public health infrastructure.

Dr. Wender’s influence extends far beyond Pennsylvania. As the first primary care physician to serve as National President and later Chief Cancer Control Officer of the American Cancer Society, he helped launch national efforts like the HPV Vaccination and Lung Cancer Roundtables and the landmark 80% by 2018 colorectal screening campaign—an initiative that led to millions more Americans receiving life-saving screenings.

Despite his national impact, Dr. Wender remains grounded in his role as a family physician in Philadelphia, continuing to provide compassionate care for patients. “Being a physician is a privilege,” he shared. “And being trusted in leadership positions has given me the chance to have even greater influence.”

Dr. Wender joins a distinguished legacy of honorees, including Dr. Jonas Salk, and will be formally recognized at PAMED’s Annual Meeting in October 2025. His career stands as a testament to the power of medicine to drive change, one patient, one policy, and one community at a time.