An Advocate for Vulnerable Patients

Dr. Jim Ledwith ’79, a physician known for his leadership in treating patients with opioid use disorder and caring for the uninsured, will be honored posthumously with the William & Mary Alumni Association’s second annual Civic & Humanitarian Leadership Award on Feb. 8, 2025, during Charter Day Weekend.

Ledwith passed away on July 9 after being critically injured in a bicycle accident nearly three weeks earlier. He had learned about the award on June 14, a few days before the accident, during a phone call with Alumni Association Board President Tina Reynolds Kenny ’92, P ’24, P ’27. He shared the good news with his family on Father’s Day.

“Both of us were beaming with pride,” his daughter, Allison Ledwith Glubiak, wrote to Alumni Association CEO Matt Brandon ’92. “I am so grateful that he was able to see his hard work and dedication to the field recognized while he was living.”

Created last year, the Alumni Civic & Humanitarian Leadership Award recognizes alumni who exemplify the university’s values, dedicating significant time, leadership and energy to serve humanity.

Ledwith received the Family Medicine Education Consortium (FMEC) Family Physicians Who Are Changing Our World Award in fall 2023 for his “service and advocacy for responsible care for patients who depend on opioid medication” as well as his leadership in caring for the uninsured.

A chemistry major at William & Mary, Ledwith received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia (now Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine). His work with opioid use disorder and uninsured patients started in the rural community of Tappahannock, Virginia, where he founded a free clinic that still operates today.

After leaving Tappahannock in 2005, he became a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. He served as faculty advisor for a student-run free health care program and practiced family medicine in a community that was in the throes of a heroin epidemic. After retiring from his primary care practice at UMass in 2023, he continued his involvement as a physician consultant with UMass Memorial Health’s Opioid Crisis Task Force.

Ledwith “defined his career through service to vulnerable patient populations,” Dr. M. Diane McKee, professor and chair of the UMass Chan Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, wrote in nominating him for the Family Physicians Who Are Changing Our World Award.

Read more about Ledwith in the W&M Alumni Magazine online exclusive article, “One Patient at a Time,” published this past spring.

To nominate deserving alumni for this or other awards, please visit wmalumni.com/awards.