After decades of support, the Paul W. Burleson Foundation’s transformative partnership with the Heersink School of Medicine reached a new milestone this September with the creation of the Paul and Martha Burleson Endowed Chair in Medical Education. This is the first endowed chair—and one of only a handful of endowed faculty positions—specifically designated for the UAB Department of Medical Education since it became an independent department in 2011.

The Burleson Endowed Chair will support the work of inaugural holder Craig Hoesley, M.D., who has served as department chair and senior associate dean for Medical Education for more than a decade. Hoesley joined the Heersink School of Medicine faculty in 1999 after completing his internship, internal medicine residency, chief residency, and infectious disease fellowship at UAB.

“He is such a valuable asset to the medical school,” said Burleson Foundation trustee Linda Draughn. “I think he leads by example and he’s very approachable—people can come to him with their problems, even personal problems. The Burleson [scholarship] students through the years have unanimously told me that they knew, admired, and respected him, and he gives all students a role model to learn from. He’s been a pleasure to work with, and I hope he’ll realize from this donation how much he’s appreciated by the school, his students, and this donor.”

Linda Draughn with Burleson scholarship recipients at the 2022 Scholarship Dinner.

Draughn has worked closely with Hoesley since 2009, when the Burleson Medical Scholarship—one of the most prestigious and generous scholarships available to Heersink students—was first awarded. The foundation has since distributed more than $6.5 million to deserving recipients, allowing dozens of students to pursue their academic and career goals debt-free.

“We don’t have many full tuition and fees scholarships and it’s a real difference-maker for our students,” Hoesley said. “The amount of debt that students carry now on average is higher, but physician compensation hasn’t really kept up with inflation.”

The scholarship’s namesake, Paul W. Burleson, M.D., was intimately familiar with the financial challenges involved with attaining a medical education. The only child of a railroad conductor and a stay-at-home mother, Burleson had to take on significant debt to earn his medical degree. Even after becoming one of the most active and accomplished primary care physicians in Alabama’s history, serving the Birmingham community for 35 years as an internist, Burleson never forgot his struggles as a young physician.

“He was so excited about what the money could do,” recalled Draughn, who helped her stepfather establish his namesake foundation. Burleson’s hope was not only to invest in individual careers, but also to increase the number of talented, homegrown family medicine doctors, internists, and pediatricians serving Alabama communities. In the two decades since Burleson’s death, the state’s need for dedicated primary care physicians has only increased.

“In many respects, the amount of debt you have will directly influence the specialty that you go into, and primary care is one of the lower-compensated specialties,” Hoesley explained. “By providing these full scholarships, Linda and the Burleson Foundation are really allowing these students to pick a specialty that they’re passionate about, including primary care. It’s a real benefit not to have to worry about how much you’re getting paid. It’s an unbelievable gift that they’re giving to students.”

Hoesley reserved special praise for Draughn, who has been the driving force behind the Burleson Foundation since its inception.

“Of the individuals who have donated resources for scholarships, Linda Draughn has probably been the most hands-on donor we’ve ever had,” Hoesley said.

Paul W. Burleson, M.D., and his wife Martha.

“She vets the students based on criteria that we’ve had for many years, and she has a relationship with them—she keeps in touch with the students. She cares about their academic progress. She wants to make sure they’ve got the financial knowledge they need to succeed as physicians and as adults.”

The Burleson Medical Scholarship has a unique requirement: it’s mandatory for all recipients to take a financial literacy course, ensuring that they’re equipped with basic budgeting skills in addition to their specialized body of medical knowledge. Hoesley intends to apply those same skills to the management of the Burleson Endowed Chair.

“Whatever portion of your salary that an endowment gives you, that’s money that you don’t have to come up with in another way,” Hoesley said. “It makes available funds that will be used for the betterment of your program, which is how we’ll use the Burleson Endowed Chair.”

Although he’s honored and grateful to benefit from the Burleson Endowed Chair, Hoesley emphasized that it will primarily be used to enhance the student experience in the Heersink School of Medicine. It’s a fitting capstone to Paul Burleson’s vision for medical education in Alabama: a perennial investment in both the students who will serve families across the state and the mentors who educate them.

“I think it will allow the Heersink School of Medicine to attract the best educators and give them star power at the top levels, and I think that students benefit from gaining access to exceptional faculty and research opportunities,” Draughn said. “It’s all about the students for the Burleson Foundation, and this chair will help them.”