Faculty member Jo Marie Reilly MD, MPH, receives USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching

Jo Marie Reilly, MD, MPH, professor of clinical family medicine, is the recipient of the 2023-2024 USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award recognizes outstanding faculty members who have a proven track record as exceptional teachers with a positive, inspiring, and long-lasting effect on students’ learning, along with extraordinary or pioneering contributions to excellence in teaching. Reilly holds a dual appointment with the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. In 2017, she received her Master of Public Health degree from the latter.

“It is such a tremendous honor!” she remarks. “I looked at past recipients and realized that I am standing on the shoulder of giants. It has been inspiring to learn about all the amazing work being done across USC by students, physicians, and faculty. These efforts will move us forward as a university and as a society.”

Reilly joined USC in 2007 to contribute to clinical education at the Keck School of Medicine. She was recruited as the director of the Professionalism and Practice of Medicine Program and the associate director of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Program. In 2011, Reilly founded the Primary Care Initiative, training medical students and educating the medical school about community-based primary care tailored towards the needs of vulnerable populations and underrepresented communities. For 13 years, she co-directed the doctoral course, Introduction to Clinical Medicine, highlighting holistic, biopsychosocial, spiritual approaches to patient communication and examination. Additionally, she co-founded the USC Interprofessional Education and Collaboration for Geriatrics Program, pairing medical students across seven health professional disciplines with older adults in low-income (HUD) housing in the community. In this course alone, she trains over 100 students annually, to serve this demographic and support healthy aging.

Reilly has worked to advance public health advocacy in medical education. In 2016, she established a nutrition, cooking, and education program at the Los Angeles Wellness Center in collaboration with the Keck School of Medicine, offering weekly classes to the surrounding community. Through this service/learning engagement, the medical students provide a healthy meal each week and teach local residents about nutrition, healthy cooking, and exercise. This initiative, as well as her championing of lifestyle medicine, has strengthened nutrition education for all medical students preparing them to address the national obesity and overweight epidemic by anticipating the needs of their patients through prevention and chronic disease management. She is part of a national team writing nutrition education standards for medical students and residents.

Similarly, Reilly has advocated for recently incarcerated people to be reintegrated into society safely and holistically. Through a research agreement with Homeboy Industries, medical students are learning conducting research, community-based advocacy, and best clinical practices for tattoo removal for people of color who were former gang members or recently incarcerated.

Throughout her time at the KSOM, Reilly has trained students across multiple health care disciplines to work inter-professionally and integrate a holistic team approach to medical care delivery. She has taught medical and public health students about the social determinants of health including food insecurity and tobacco cessation. Through her clinical work, as an educator, and through advocacy, she has also worked with women, children, and low-income older adults. Additionally, she introduced electives at the medical school focusing on carcel communities, people with addictions, and patients with disabilities.

“I hope to develop a holistic physician and health care professional, one who is both a clinician and an educator of patients,” she affirms. “I see such a great need in our communities and I’m really hoping to create more clinicians with a vision to help address these needs. They should be compassionate healers who have an intellectual curiosity to answer clinical questions.”

In her own journey, Reilly credits multiple mentors who supported her career. “To say I have had one mentor wouldn’t be fair. I have had many people along the way who shared my passions and helped me in my journey. So, I am grateful to them all. I think good mentors are important and that is what I love about being a clinical educator—you pass it forward to the next generation!”