CRPH Medical Director Awarded for Meaningful Work
Dr. Patricia Witherspoon has spent her career transforming rural healthcare through her work. She has spent almost 27 years at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine - Columbia, where she currently serves as the medical director for the SC Center of Rural and Primary Healthcare (CRPH), board chair of the South Carolina Office for Rural Health, and an associate professor at the School of Medicine family medicine residency program. On October 3, 2025, Witherspoon received the Alumni Association Honorary Life Membership Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the USC School of Medicine.
Witherspoon first joined the School of Medicine in 1998. Before her appointment, she received her Doctor of Medicine from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine and worked as a staff physician at the Richland Primary Care Association. The first doctor in her family, Witherspoon, says that her choice to pursue medicine stems from a generational history of nurturing. Both of her parents came from large families, and Witherspoon describes how they all leaned on each other while she was growing up.
“Nurturing is what I’ve always been exposed to. I thought it was natural to go into healthcare,” She explained when asked what led her down the path of healthcare.
This familial experience also led Witherspoon towards pursuing family medicine as her specialty, as she found it was the perfect mixture of nurturing, fast-paced work, and alignment with her other professional interests. Her decision was met with resistance from her professors and classmates, who commented on the lack of earning potential in family medicine. Even so, their disapproval did not dissuade her.
“And I look where I am now, and I’m so happy that I made that decision. Because they told me that ‘you’re just squandering your skills’... and they were so wrong.”
At CRPH, Witherspoon provides valuable insights and leadership to advise the Center’s strategy and programs. Her expertise and passion are vital to the Center achieving positive impacts in improving access to healthcare in rural areas.
Witherspoon credits her family, faith, and upbringing with this passion for rural health. Her love for rural areas began in childhood summers spent on a tobacco farm in Hemingway, South Carolina. Witherspoon was raised in Connecticut, but her parents sent her south each summer to spend with her grandparents. She describes these summers as feeling like a journey not only across the country, but also across time.
“You would’ve thought I was in the 1800s, but this was in the 1970s,” Witherspoon said. “I witnessed the disparity firsthand. The stark disparity. Yes, geographically from the North and South, but even within the South. Because there were people [in South Carolina] who had indoor plumbing, but my grandparents did not.”
Her summers in Hemingway gave her a real insight into rural life, and Witherspoon feels these experiences help her better serve rural areas.
“Having my authentic relationship with rural, I’m coming from a space that I’ve been there. [...] The times I spent as a child, and as an adult, seeing my relatives and my parents, I believe I’m a credible eyewitness of what rural is and how we need to preserve it and work hard in it.”
Rural healthcare has seen much progress over the course of Witherspoon’s career. She describes one major advancement occurring in the increased use of telehealth, which has allowed for an increase in access for those in rural areas, especially during COVID. Through telehealth, according to Witherspoon, providers can reach rural areas that distance might have otherwise kept them from. She also notes the effects of advocacy among rural organizations, church-based organizations, and grassroots initiatives. She encourages those organizations, rural legislators, and advocates to learn from each other by listening to the people of rural communities, as rural residents know what’s best.
Witherspoon expressed her excitement about the attention centered around rural health issues, as well as her hope for the future: “Everyone understands that the rural areas are not getting what they need. [...] Data is now available to citizens and policy makers, and they see ‘Oh, wow, we need to do better’. When you look at the landscape of America, most of it is rural. It’s always been that way.”
The Alumni Association Honorary Life Award is only one of many awards Witherspoon has received for her exceptional work. She has been awarded the Timothy Llewelyn, MD, Memorial Award for her work in service and quality, as well as the MLK Social Justice Award for her work in social justice. She received the James E. Clyburn Health Equity Leadership award for her work in the rural space and was twice-awarded the Diabetes Champion Award from the Department of Public Health.
Throughout her time at the School of Medicine, Witherspoon has focused on initiatives in diabetes, sickle cell, and women’s health. She also helped to create a rotation for family medicine residents that is focused on community engagement, an impact she made that is still seen over 26 years later, despite Dr. Witherspoon no longer being the coordinator. This rotation brings interns into local schools, the statehouse, and other community centers so that they can familiarize themselves with healthcare in a more holistic manner.
Witherspoon now also works as a medical consultant for Medicaid, following in the footsteps of her predecessor and longtime mentor, Dr. Tan Platt. She describes how this role has helped widen her span of influence in a way that feels incredibly meaningful.
“When I moved into a non-clinical role, I had a panel of several hundred patients, but pivoting to Medicaid, I’m helping to contribute to a million patients,” Witherspoon explained.
Despite her long list of accomplishments, Witherspoon humbly credits her family for her success. She describes the lasting impact their support has had on her and her career, and how, without it, she feels she would not be where she is today. 
“I have to always give them credit, I could not have done any of this if my family was not as supportive as they were,” she shared. “They just let me be me, and I’m grateful. None of this happens without them letting me be me.”
