Dr. Stella Receives 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award From the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL – Joseph W. Stella, DO, FACOFP dist. of Whitehall, Pennsylvania was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award on March 17 by the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians during the 2007 ACOFP Annual Convention in Kissimmee, Florida.
Dr. Stella’s service to the osteopathic profession spans six decades. He graduated from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1943, after which he served in the Navy for three years, and then settled in Honolulu for what would become a 27-year practice of osteopathic family medicine. In 1963, he began a second career in osteopathic emergency medicine in Allentown, Pennsylvania – an ER career that lasted 30 years.
Dr. Stella is most proud of his tenure on the ACOFP Committee on Evaluation and Education since its inception in 1975. Not only did Dr. Stella begin osteopathic residencies in Allentown for both family medicine and emergency medicine, he has conducted hundreds of residency program inspections during the past 32 years, and continues to inspect programs today.
Dr. Stella became an ACOFP Fellow in 1973 and a Distinguished Fellow in 2005. In 1979, he received the ACOFP’s highest honor – Osteopathic Family Physician of the Year.
Dr. Stella has established a leadership legacy in the osteopathic profession that included the American Osteopathic Association Presidency from 1987 to 1988.
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Founded in 1950, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians is the national organization of more than 25,000 practicing osteopathic family physicians and physicians-in-training. The ACOFP’s mission is to promote excellence in osteopathic family medicine through quality education, visionary leadership and responsible advocacy.
