VCU news

Esther Johnston, M.D., School of Medicine, Class of 2011

Johnston was honored this fall with the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education.

The AAFP award recognizes outstanding family medicine residents for their leadership, civic involvement, exemplary patient care and aptitude for and interest in family medicine. Johnston is now a third-year family medicine resident in Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona.

In announcing her selection, the AAFP highlighted Johnston’s interest in global and public health. The announcement praised her effort to raise funds for the first phase of a deworming and nutrition project in the Kibera slum just outside of Nairobi, Kenya.

Johnston first traveled to Kenya from VCU on a trip funded by a CDC-Hubert Global Health Fellowship. She was awarded the fellowship while a fourth-year medical student in support of her work on community-oriented measles outbreak response activities in the African state.