Q&A with Steve Harris

Since the UPIKE-Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine (KYCOM) welcomed its first class, Steve Harris, Ph.D., has educated students as a professor of pharmacology and helped lead the college as an associate dean. Mark Baggett talked with Harris about his career at KYCOM spanning two decades and his post-retirement plans.

Q: You grew up in Georgia and North Carolina. What was your first visit to Pikeville like?

A: I had a friend from graduate school who had just started at the medical school in 1997, and he suggested I apply for a position. I had been doing my postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute for three years, and I decided to apply. I had never been to Kentucky before and really didn’t know much about osteopathic medicine. I had a fantastic meeting with Dr. John Strosnider, the founding dean of the medical school.

Q: What was it that impressed you?

A: I could see Stro’s passion and enthusiasm for the mission of the college of osteopathic medicine. It was inspiring. The school was brand new, but it had a mission of training osteopathic physicians to practice in small towns in Kentucky and in the Appalachian region and to focus on primary care. That’s still the mission today, and that was why I wanted to go there.

Q: What kind of transition did you have in coming to Pikeville?

A: I grew up in a small town of 1,200 people in Georgia, so Pikeville was actually a bigger town — “a big little town,” as we say. It had the conveniences of a small town with a welcoming environment. I was very comfortable coming here.

There’s a funny story about our move to Pikeville. We were living in Maryland and had to move our furniture. I had rented a house in Pikeville sight unseen. It was seven miles out in the county, and the landlord had sent me pictures. When we got there with the moving van, the house was one mile down a single lane road. I thought there’s no way I was going to get this truck close, and all I had was a small pick-up truck that could take two boxes at a time. When I came back to the truck, it was surrounded with, I think, eight local residents and four pick-up trucks. We moved all our stuff in one hour. I was so impressed that I wrote an article about it in the local newspaper.

Q: I know you’ve taught a lot of students, but who are some of the students who really stand out to you as representing KYCOM?

A: I’m very fond of the early days and my very first class, the Class of 2001. Jody Brown was a local kid, went to high school in Pikeville and to college here. He was what our school was all about. We train them up, and so many come back to practice here. Jody completed his residency in Dayton, Ohio, and then came back to be a retinal specialist here in Pikeville.

Bill Webb, a member of the Class of 2002, is another one. He is somewhat unique because he had been a local businessman in the area. When the school opened, he realized his dream had been to go to medical school and become a physician. He is a non-traditional example of someone who took the opportunity to become a primary care physician. His son has also graduated from KYCOM.

Q: What would you say is distinctive about the college? What is its reputation nationally?

A: We know who we are. We are mission-oriented, “keeping our promise,” just as Dr. Strosnider said when I came here: “Your job,” he said, “is to educate my medical students.” The emphasis on teaching is refreshing here and we’ve built an environment that encourages teaching excellence.

You don’t just get a reputation overnight. Twentytwo years later, we have a national reputation, and we are ranked and recognized. If you go to a medical conference and ask somebody about KYCOM, they know our mission: an emphasis on primary care and rural medicine. We have an identity.

Q: How is your field of pharmacology changing?

A: It is an ever-changing field with new drugs being developed all the time. Today, there is a real focus on personalized medicine.

Q: And now you are retiring this summer, or should I say you are half-retired?

A: I resigned as associate dean on December 31, 2018, and as a professor of pharmacology on June 30, 2019. The decision to leave KYCOM was very bittersweet for me because I’ve had a great job and one that I’ve loved for 21 years. We decided to move closer to our families in Georgia and I will mostly be working from a home office in Lagrange, Ga., teaching medical board reviews. I have taught for Kaplan Medical for the past 17 years doing board reviews for both D.O. and M.D. students and I will continue to do that. My wife, Barbara, and I have three kids, Stephanie, a third grade school teacher in Alpharetta; Samantha, a nursing assistant in Pikeville; and Andrew, a sophomore biochemistry major at LaGrange College.