HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – A new scholarship established by an alumna of the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and her husband aims to help future medical students from Kanawha County, West Virginia.

Myra L. Wilkerson, M.D., and Stephen M. Wilkerson generously established an endowed scholarship known as the Dr. Myra L. Wilkerson Scholarship for entering first-year medical students with first preference to students who are residents of Kanawha County, where the Wilkersons called home for more than 30 years. The award is renewable for up to three years.

A native of Nitro, West Virginia, Myra Wilkerson earned her Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from Marshall University and worked as a medical technologist and clinical instructor for several years until entering medical school. She graduated from the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in 1994, followed by a residency in anatomic and clinical pathology and a fellowship in cytopathology at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. She remained at Geisinger and now serves as chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and the Geisinger Diagnostic Medicine Institute for Geisinger Health and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

Stephen Wilkerson is also a two-time graduate of Marshall University. In 1985, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education, followed by a Master of Arts in Mathematics in 1989. He is a retired lecturer from the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. He also taught mathematics in the Kanawha County Schools and served as an education consultant for the West Virginia House of Delegates.

"Marshall University was an incredible place for both of us as learners, both undergraduate and graduate,” Myra Wilkerson said. “Medical education is now so expensive, and I feel that we are in a good place to be able to help these young physicians financially. I hire a lot of physicians and see the huge impact that student loan debt burden has on their lives, especially when they are new in practice and have young families. This is a way we can express our gratitude to the Marshall family, by giving back and helping these future colleagues and caregivers."

For more information or to make a gift to the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, please contact Linda Holmes, director of development and alumni affairs, at 304-691-1711 or holmes@marshall.edu. For news and information about the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, follow us on Twitter @MUSOMWV, like us on Facebook or visit jcesom.marshall.edu. 

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Media Contact: Sheanna M. Spence, Director of External Affairs, School of Medicine, 304-691-1639

Date Posted: Monday, February 14, 2022