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Dr. Counselman to retire from GME post June 30

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Francis Counselman, MD (MD ’83, Emergency Medicine Residency ’86), will be stepping down as Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education effective June 30, 2025.

“During his three-year stint in this position, Dr. Counselman provided invaluable leadership,” Alfred Abuhamad, MD, executive vice president of health sciences, said in announcing the news. “He guided graduate medical education through the successful integration with Old Dominion University. He worked with our colleagues at Sentara Health to boost the number of residency positions and has launched initiatives to further expand the scope of training we offer. He counseled residency leadership and helped achieve adverse-free accreditation across all programs.”

Dr. Counselman’s pending retirement marks not only his departure from overseeing graduate medical education. It also signals the end of an outstanding four-decade-long career in medicine and medical education — all of it while part of Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University.

The integral role he played in EVMS history made him an ideal choice to lead graduate medical education following his retirement from clinical practice in 2022, Dr. Abuhamad said.

Dr. Counselman graduated from EVMS and trained here in emergency medicine — then a division of family medicine. As a young faculty member affiliated with Emergency Physicians of Tidewater, a private practice group of board-certified emergency physicians, he advocated for the establishment of a free-standing academic department of emergency medicine. He was appointed the inaugural chair. At the time, it was the first academic department of emergency medicine in Virginia and the 26th in the nation.

Under his leadership, the emergency medicine residency program grew to become one of the nation’s most respected, and it earned the longest accreditations possible. In recognition of his work, he received the national Residency Director of the Year Award from the Emergency Medicine Residents Association and the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Among his many other accolades, he received the highest career recognition awards from the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine and the Virginia College of Emergency Medicine. 

He held some of the most important leadership roles in organized medicine, helping draw national attention to his program and the school. He is a past President of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine. Closer to home, he was president of the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians and the Norfolk Academy of Medicine. He was the first emergency physician to serve as President of the Medical Staff of Sentara Hospitals Norfolk (SNGH and Sentara Leigh).

“Dr. Counselman leaves behind an incredible legacy in the countless lives he touched both as a clinician and as an educator,” Dr. Abuhamad said. “I am grateful for his extraordinary contributions to the institution and to the health of our community.”

Read more about Dr. Counselman and his career accomplishments.