Alumni Spotlight

After graduating from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completing his training in family medicine at the United States Public Health Service Hospital in Staten Island, New York, Dr. Veit set off for the tiny town of Orbisonia, Pennsylvania, population 800. As medical director of the Southern Huntington County Medical Center, he realized his goal of being a rural doctor while fulfilling his obligation as a scholarship recipient from the National Health Service Corps.

"I wanted to be a doctor who made a difference to the people of a small town," recalls Dr. Veit who was strongly influenced by his experience with underserved communities during his clinical rotations at PCOM’s Healthcare Centers.
During his three years in Orbisonia, he learned that being a small town doctor is much more than just taking care of patients. It’s also taking care of the community. "As a small town physician, you are iconic in a way," he reflects.

At the same time, Dr. Veit discovered that he enjoyed teaching students. He won approval for the county medical center to become a rural medicine training site for PCOM students and immediately began teaching them what he had only just begun to learn himself: the practical importance of having the broad-based knowledge of a generalist and the flexibility to address the unexpected.

In 1979, Dr. Veit left Orbisonia to serve as the National Health Service Corps’ regional medical coordinator for rural communities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia. After nearly two years, he found that he missed being a clinician. He contacted the late Tom Rowland, former PCOM president, and a week later was hired as a physician in the College’s growing Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Veit was particularly drawn to PCOM’s Healthcare Centers which he saw as more than just the delivery of health care.

The Healthcare Centers ultimately put Dr. Veit on the path to administrative roles of ever increasing responsibility. In 1984, he was appointed director of the healthcare centers and chairman of the division of community medicine. Five years later, he was appointed director of medical education, and in 1990, became assistant dean, graduate medical education.

Two years later, he was named dean of the College, a post he has held for 20 years, bringing a long period of stability and growth to PCOM. Now provost, senior vice president of academic affairs and dean, Dr. Veit takes pride in PCOM’s progress on many fronts while lauding the College’s traditional osteopathic curriculum.
Dr. Veit is gratified by the remarkable growth of PCOM’s graduate medical education program along with the College’s overall affiliations with hospitals statewide and regional. "Maintaining and expanding our graduate and professional medical education program has been critical to providing our graduates with options as hospitals have consolidated, merged or closed over the last 20 years," he notes. "We now have core affiliations with 32 well-respected institutions where our students spend quality time during clerkships and our graduates receive excellent training."

During the past two decades, Dr. Veit has also overseen PCOM’s expansion of academic offerings to include graduate and professional degree programs in biomedical sciences, forensic medicine, organizational development and leadership, physician assistant studies, psychology and pharmacy, as well as the College’s establishment of a branch campus in Gwinnett County, Georgia. "All these programs enhance PCOM as an institution and position us well for the future when medicine will be delivered in more of a team approach," he notes.

As chair of the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation and the Board of Deans of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) as well as a member of the steering committee of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA)/AACOM Blue Ribbon Commission for the Advancement of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Veit has witnessed tremendous growth in osteopathic medical education: "When I started at PCOM, there were five osteopathic schools in the country. There are now 34, including branch campuses, and the profession continues to grow."Dr. Veit’s contributions to the profession have been recognized through the receipt of the Commissioned Officer Superior Service Award (1979), the U.S. Public Health Service Humanitarian Medal (1981), a Shankweiler fellowship – Muhlenberg College (1995), the AACOM Dale Dodson Award (2002) and the Alumni Association of PCOM Certificate of Honor (2008). Yet Dr. Veit notes his greatest pride is his family. He and his wife of 37 years, Cindy, have three children (daughter Alicia and sons Daniel and Jonathan) and four grandchildren (Gabriel, Nathaniel, Anna and Abigail).

Looking ahead, Dr. Veit sees continued growth and change for PCOM. "We must continue to be creative and challenge ourselves as the healthcare environment evolves," he says. "PCOM is well positioned to lead into the future; I continue to appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of the College’s Mission."