Family and Community Medicine Strategic Leadership Council

Jack Colwill, MD, who began his career in internal medicine, came to MU in 1964 to serve as an assistant dean of the School of Medicine. In 1976, he was named the first permanent chair of MU Family and Community Medicine.

In 1979, Dr. Colwill led efforts to bring the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Academic Family Medicine Fellowship Program to MU. In its early years, the fellowship helped address the shortage of faculty members across the country. It also helped build the research side of our department.

A nationally recognized expert in physician workforce issues, Jack has addressed the need to expand primary care services, especially for underserved and rural populations, throughout his career. From 1990-1996, he served on the Council on Graduate Medical Education, a committee that advises Congress and the president on physician workforce issues. And from 1992-2000, he directed the RWJF Generalist Physician Initiative, a project designed to help medical schools recruit and educate generalist physicians.

In 1989, Dr. Colwill was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine). He earned Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s Marian Bishop Award in 2002, and in 2004, he was named a National Associate of The National Academies.

Since retiring in 1997, Dr. Colwill has more time for family. He spends his summers in Utah with Win, his wife of nearly 55 years, and he travels across the country to visit his three children and four grandchildren.

Richelle Koopman, MD, MS, joined our faculty in 2007 after completing an academic fellowship, Master’s degree in clinical research and her early faculty research work at Medical University of South Carolina. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the St. Margaret – UPMC Family Medicine Residency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Koopman has served as research director for the department since 2017. Her federal funding as a principal investigator has totaled over $3 million, with over $20 million as a co-investigator. She has served on the board of directors for the North American Primary Care Research Group, family medicine’s premier international research association, and on the board of directors for Annals of Family Medicine, Inc., the managing board for the top-rated primary care research journal according to impact factor. She has contributed to the national research landscape on numerous federal grant review panels including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Health Information Technology Research study section and the Veteran’s Administration’s Health Services Research and Development Mentored Research study section.

Dr. Koopman was the founder and past chair of the School of Medicine’s Women in Medicine and Medical Sciences group. She is a member of the national steering committee for the Association of American Medical College’s Group on Women in Medicine and Science and the University of Missouri Chancellor’s Status of Women Committee. She completed the Association of Departments of Family Medicine’s Chair Development Fellowship in 2017. She is a 2018 graduate of the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Fellowship.

Dr. Koopman’s ultimate goal is to be excited to come to work every day. She believes that we are at our best when we are finding joy and connecting to meaning in our work. We can be most innovative when collaborating in an inclusive environment that allows diverse voices to be heard, and to productively disagree to co-create the best solutions. She deeply appreciates a longstanding professional and personal partnership with her husband of very many years, as well as the joys of two children and a variety of pets. She is a fan of historical fiction and non-fiction, as well as the True/False Film Festival.

Dr. Richelle Koopman was named Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and assumed this leadership role in January 2024.

Michael LeFevre, MD, MSPH, joined our faculty in 1984 after completing medical school, residency and fellowship training here at the University of Missouri. He teaches residents and medical students in inpatient and outpatient settings and maintains an active practice across the full breadth of family medicine, including inpatient work and — through 2012 — obstetrics. 

Dr. LeFevre served as Chief Medical Information Officer for MU Health Care and directed the implementation of the electronic medical record across the system from 2002 through 2012. Much of his academic effort has been in the area of evidence-based medicine and clinical policies, and he completed more than a decade of work on the United States Preventive Services Task Force in April of 2016, including three years as co-vice chair and a year as chair. Dr. LeFevre was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) in 2011.

In his free time, Dr. LeFevre enjoys fishing and photography. He and his wife Judith met in Marching Mizzou in college and share a love of family and the arts.

Erik Lindbloom, MD, MSPH, joined our faculty in 1997, concurrently enrolling in our fellowships in Academic Family Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. Today, Dr. Lindbloom directs those two programs and our residency practice at the Family Health Center (FHC), the federally-qualified health center in Columbia. He sees patients at FHC and at University Hospital, and he is one of the founding faculty co-directors for the MedZou Community Health Clinic, a student-coordinated free clinic for the uninsured. He has served on the board of directors for the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the North American Primary Care Research Group, and he currently chairs the Family Physicians in Geriatrics Group for the American Geriatrics Society.

Recently, Dr. Lindbloom led the development of MU's Master of Science in Academic Medicine (MSAM) degree, the first such fully online degree in the nation designed for physicians who want to improve their teaching, research, writing and review skills, leadership ability, or all of the above. Extending our department's long tradition of training future medical leaders, this program is ideal for physicians who want to develop and strengthen their academic skills while maintaining their current positions. Our first MSAM students graduated in 2018.

Outside of work, Dr. Lindbloom enjoys traveling and practicing taekwondo with his family, discovering good vegetarian food and working on cars — most often of the electric variety lately.

Erika Ringdahl, MD, joined our faculty in 1994 after completing medical school at the University of Iowa, residency at the University of Missouri and several years of practice in rural Iowa.

Dr. Ringdahl has been program director of the MU Family Medicine residency since 1997. She has had continuous HRSA federal residency training grants for curricular innovation since 1997. In 2015, she was named the Nikitas J. Zervanos Outstanding National Family Medicine Residency Program Director of the Year.

Dr. Ringdahl’s interests include graduate medical education, chronic disease management and wellness. For 17 years, she has led a free weekly workout class which is attended by MU Family Medicine faculty, residents, students, staff and other community members. In addition to spending time with her husband and three children, Dr. Ringdahl enjoys exercise, yard work and her yellow Labrador, Duke.

James Stevermer, MD, MSPH, attended medical school at Washington University and then joined our faculty in 1998 after completing his residency and fellowship training here at the University of Missouri. He practices and is medical director at Callaway Physicians, a residency training site in Fulton, Missouri. He is the medical director of Mid-Missouri AHEC, which oversees rural training for Mizzou medical students. 

Dr. Stevermer regularly teaches in the Introduction to Patient Care portion of the first year curriculum, and he serves on the curriculum board for the School of Medicine. He chairs the Pre-professional Scholars Committee, which oversees one of six rural pre-admissions programs in the country. Dr. Stevermer is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians Commission on Health of the Public and Science, and he serves as their liaison to the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative and the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. He is also a member of the Rabies Working Group for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. 

Dr. Stevermer’s clinical interests are chronic disease and evidence-based medicine. He has written and edited for the Family Physicians Inquiries Network since its inception. His hobbies include music, board games and reading. 

Sarah Swofford, MD, MSPH joined our faculty in 2007 after completing medical school and residency at the University of Missouri. She also participated in the academic fellowship as a new faculty member, earning her MSPH in 2009. She teaches medical students and residents in outpatient and inpatient settings, and she maintains an active practice in family medicine including the care of obstetric patients. She has served as medical director of South Providence Family Medicine Clinic: Gold Team since 2009. She has supervised the M4 electives for MU Family Medicine, and in 2016 began co-directing the clerkship with Dr. Allmon. She became the director of medical student education in 2020.

Dr. Swofford’s interests include women’s health, obstetrics, pediatric care, and undergraduate medical education. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, as well as traveling and baking.

Dr. Zweig, who earned his MD from the University of Missouri, joined our faculty in 1984, after completing residency training, the RWJF Academic Family Practice Fellowship, and his MSPH degree at MU. He directed our Family Medicine Residency and later co-directed our Academic Primary Care Fellowship.

In 2019, Dr. Zweig was asked to serve as interim dean of MU School of Medicine, and a year later he was named dean. As dean, Dr. Zweig was recognized for his stellar leadership and the many ways he has promoted the research, education and clinical missions of MU’s School of Medicine. He stepped down as dean in the spring of 2022.

During his 40-year career at MU, Dr. Zweig played a key role in developing geriatrics and palliative care programs and advancing training in care for the elderly. He also worked with his colleagues across MU Health to promote diversity, inclusion and health equity.

In 2013, he received a Faculty-Alumni Award from the MU Alumni Association. In 2019 he earned the Anna B. Searcy Award from the MU Women in Medicine and Medical Sciences group for his work promoting gender equity. Dr. Zweig served as 2018 president elect and winter meeting program chair of the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM). He has been ADFM’s representative to the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies and ADFM’s Leadership Development Committee chair.

Dr. Zweig, who retired in fall of 2022, enjoys being able to spend more time with his family – his wife, Susan Even, their two sons and two grandsons, and he likes to fish and travel. In his new role as professor emeritus, he hopes to find some way to advance family medicine and to particularly support those who have made the enduring commitment as family physicians.