Vickstrom ’92 accepts Leadership & Service Award

Craig Vickstrom, class of 1992, you arrived on the Hilltop from the community of Burlington, Iowa. Throughout your career you have supported communities both near and far.

After Cornell, you travelled to Ghana to serve in the Peace Corps. Upon your return to the United States you were inspired to continue helping others through medicine. You attended the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine where you pursued a career in family medicine. While in medical school, you returned to Ghana as the Barry Freeman Fellow for Clinical Medicine in Developing Countries in 1997. During your residency at the University of Iowa, you rose to become the chief resident in the Department of Family Medicine.

You started your post-residency medical career as a locum tenens physician—filling physician staffing shortages—for two years in rural health clinics in medically underserved areas of the United States. You then moved to Baraga County Memorial Hospital in upper Michigan as a staff physician and ultimately became chief of staff. In 2011, you relocated to become a staff physician at Range Regional Health Services.

When a massive Ebola outbreak occurred in Sierra Leone in 2015, you again put your ethic of service to others front-and-center. At great personal risk, you persevered through the epidemic and even put your Cornell physics education to work teaching local students. You have now returned to upper Michigan as a staff physician for the Baraga County Memorial Hospital where you are in family practice.

On behalf of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the entire Cornell community, we honor your exemplary service to humanity with the Leadership and Service Award.