“IUP’s college of osteopathic medicine will focus on identifying, recruiting, and educating those hidden healthcare heroes who may not even realize their own potential to become our next generation of physicians. We will carefully refine and document our successes, creating a revolutionary national model for scouting and bolstering future healthcare leaders, especially for our rural communities.”
—Miko Rose, DO, FNAOME
Founding Dean, IUP Proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine
John A. (Jack) Brose
John A. (Jack) Brose, DO, FAAFP, is executive dean emeritus, professor of family medicine, and former vice provost for health affairs at Ohio University. He received a BA in biology from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, his DO degree from the UNT Health Sciences Center/Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth, and completed a family practice residency at Scott Air Force Medical Center in Illinois, where he served as chief resident. He then completed a teaching, research, and administration fellowship at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. (more…)
Brose served as executive dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine from 2001 to 2012 and vice provost for health affairs from 2012 to 2015. During his tenure, he partnered with the OhioHealth Healthcare System and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to establish new HCOM branch campuses in Dublin and Warrensville Heights, OH. To support these endeavors, Brose raised approximately $130 million, which included a gift of $105M from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation. At that time, this was the largest educational gift ever conferred to a state university in Ohio. Expansion of the Athens campus and creation of the two new branch campuses ultimately increased HCOM’s entering class from 100 to 250 students.
In addition, Brose created a new faculty practice plan, constructed a new research facility, created a medical malpractice insurance corporation, and assumed leadership of the Ohio University student health system. He served three years as chair of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans, two years as chair of the AACOM Assembly of Presidents, and was a member of the AOA COCA. As a consultant, he worked with the American Board of Medical Specialties to promote osteopathic medical education and facilitate the AOA/ACGME residency merger.
Prior to being named executive dean, Brose was a medical school and residency faculty member. He served as professor of family medicine at Ohio University, clinical associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and instructor at St. Louis University School of Medicine. While an HCOM and OSU faculty member, Brose received 30 teaching awards, including the Ohio Academy of Family Practice’s “Family Practice Educator of the Year” and The Ohio State University's “Family Practice Residency Faculty of the Year.” He was the lead author of two editions of the widely used “Guide to EKG Interpretation” and co-authored over 20 research papers. He delivered over 100 research and CME presentations and hosted a weekly nationwide radio program on family health.
Following his tenure as executive dean and vice provost, Brose worked with multiple Historically Black Colleges and Universities in an endeavor to increase the number of African American students entering health care fields. He has consulted nationwide for universities establishing new medical schools, both DO and MD.
He is an EKG instructor and cultural medicine instructor at Ohio University and an advisory board member for the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio University College of Health Sciences and Professions.
Brose and his wife, Linda, have two grown children: Steven Brose, DO, chief of spinal cord injury medicine at the Syracuse, NY, VA Medical Center, and Christine Brose, MD, physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, WI.
In June 2025, the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation announced a new endowment to be named in honor of Brose to support the newly renamed Institute for Molecular Medicine and Aging (formerly the Edison Biotechnology Institute) at HCOM. In making the announcement, Terri Donlin Huesman, president/CEO, said, “Naming the endowment in honor of Dr. Brose is a testament to his leadership of, and vision for, Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine during his decades of service, and the legacy of impact he created.”
Jack Brose formally joined IUP’s proposed college of osteopathic medicine team as a consultant and executive mentor in 2022. In 2025, he and his wife established an endowed scholarship at IUP for future students in IUP’s proposed college of osteopathic medicine.
Learn more about Dr. Brose in this recent interview:
Why medicine?
I wanted to be a physician since I was six years old. I don’t know why, but even going to the doctor’s office as a child, I was absolutely fascinated by watching the physicians work. So very early on, I decided on a career in medicine.
How has medicine changed during the course of your career?
The launch of electronic medical records has significantly increased the volume of paperwork required by physicians. There was always a lot of paperwork before they were introduced, but there is so much more paperwork required now. With social media and websites, patients also have more access to physicians, versus calling into the after-hours answering services and allowing those services to do some screening before contacting a physician. Then, things changed again during the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing options that just didn’t exist before, like virtual appointments that have become quite common today. And things are getting ready to change again in a very dramatic way with the introduction of artificial intelligence. For example, studies have shown that AI can read some X-rays just as accurately as a physician. It’s not going to be long before AI has a very significant presence in the profession.
Why DO and rural medicine vs. MD?
When I was planning my career, I had this dream that I would practice in a tiny town, be the only physician in a 100-mile radius, and patients would pay me in goats and sheep. I loved that idea. I did my residency while serving in the Air Force, and when they made me chief resident, one requirement was teaching a course at St. Louis University School of Medicine. Much to my surprise, I absolutely loved it! I did that for four years and became very involved with SLU. By the time that I was ready to get out of the Air Force, I knew I wanted to do academic medicine. I saw an advertisement for a position at Ohio University, and the photos reminded me of my Pennsylvania alma mater, Gettysburg College, so I called them and asked about a position. After almost signing with another medical college in Ohio, I got a call to interview at OU one day as I was suturing a patient’s laceration. Being on the faculty at Ohio University and The Ohio State University, and subsequently becoming dean and vice provost at OU, were a dream come true for me.
Why IUP?
Dr. John Kopchick, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from IUP, is one of the most revered researchers at Ohio University. He was also my favorite medical school faculty member while I was dean. IUP President Driscoll had talked with Dr. Kopchick about the possibility of IUP opening a college of osteopathic medicine, and John recommended that the president talk with me. On August 6, 2021, I had lunch with President Driscoll, Dr. Kopchick, and Dr. Hilliary Creely (now interim dean of the College of Health Sciences and vice provost for Research and Innovation). At the end of the afternoon, President Driscoll invited me to come to IUP as a consultant. I traveled to IUP in October of that year and met with 14 different groups in the IUP community. It was a great visit; I absolutely fell in love with the university and its personnel. I was sure then that I wanted to become further involved with IUP.
After I left, IUP continued developing the medical school idea, including an external study about the impact of a college of osteopathic medicine. Once that was completed, President Driscoll asked me to return as a consultant. I was—and continue to be—very excited about the role. But I asked President Driscoll if I could be an unpaid volunteer. I wanted to do this because I was convinced that IUP’s mission was so important and critically needed in Pennsylvania’s rural areas. The IUP team working on the project put me on various committees, including the hiring of the founding dean and founding associate deans. The rest is history. I love working with the IUP team, and I strongly believe in the university’s mission. So much so that my wife and I funded an endowed scholarship for future students in the proposed college. Now, almost four years later, my work with IUP continues to be a wonderful experience.
What continues to drive you in your work with IUP?
IUP’s proposed college’s commitment to addressing rural health is totally different than other colleges of medicine, and it is desperately needed. IUP brought in a phenomenal founding dean in Dr. Miko Rose. She is amazing; so inspirational and driven to help the rural populations of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rose was then able to recruit founding associate deans Dr. Ryan Smith and Dr. Luke Mortensen, two of the most prominent and skilled administrators in our profession. It is very unusual to have practicing health providers come to a new medical school asking to establish training relationships, but because of these talented administrators and the college’s unique mission, that is exactly what is happening.
IUP’s college of osteopathic medicine is going to be very, very unique, and it will fill a number of tremendous societal needs. One of these is accessibility to mental health services. When Dr. Rose first said she wanted to emphasize mental health, I did some research and confirmed her assertion that mental health care is one of the biggest needs in rural communities. The IUP team’s idea of emphasizing mental health training for primary health care physicians is simply brilliant. While primary care physicians are not psychiatrists, in rural communities they are often called upon to supply care that psychiatric specialists might normally provide. This emphasis will be one of the things that separates IUP’s proposed college of osteopathic medicine from other medical schools.
Increasing availability to medical care for patients who lack that access has always been my passion. It stems back to my original goal of practicing medicine in a small rural town. When I became vice provost at OU, I became focused on minority recruitment in medicine and health care, which is another huge disparity. As a consultant helping to create a new Texas medical school, my focus was on underserved Latino communities. Increasing access to care has always been my thing, which is why I created the two new medical campuses at Ohio University, one serving a predominantly minority community and another underserved urban and rural populations. IUP’s focus on rural health care disparities is a perfect match for my interests.
Are you optimistic about the future of rural medicine?
If IUP is successful—and I know it will be—absolutely, yes. The medical school model that Dr. Rose and her team are designing is groundbreaking and will be emulated by other schools in states that have underserved populations.
Being part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education provides an especially valuable opportunity for IUP to attract talented prospective students from rural areas. Those students will be much more likely to return to those areas after completion of their training. It’s going to be a wonderful collaboration, helping to recruit talented students who might not think of themselves as eligible for medical school, but have the talent and drive to be successful. The IUP team understands that to graduate the right physicians, you first need to enroll the right students.
I have absolutely no doubt that President Driscoll, Provost and Vice President Luetkehans, Dean Rose, and the IUP team will be successful in establishing one of the most important new medical schools in the country. I am extremely grateful for having been given an opportunity to work with them.