Honoring More Than Two Decades of JABFM Leadership

With this issue of the Journal, Marjorie A. Bowman, MD, MPA, is elevated to Editor Emerita. From the beginning of her career, Dr. Bowman has been a leader. Among her many leadership roles, she has served as Department Chair in two institutions, Medical School Dean, and Chief Academic Affiliations Officer for the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet, Dr. Bowman has always considered herself a medical editor first and foremost. After all, she began editing a medical journal as a resident physician.

Dr. Bowman was named the third editor of the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice , receiving the reins from the iconic G. Gayle Stephens in 2003. For 22 years, Dr. Bowman has led the Journal , focusing the mission of the Journal to provide useful clinical research to practicing family physicians while being free to publish in and free to read. Throughout those years, and over 5,000 submitted manuscripts, Dr. Bowman continuously refined and improved the Journal to accomplish this mission.

During her first year as Editor, the Journal introduced an online version to complement the familiar red and gray print edition. Three years later, after the renaming of the American Board of Family Practice to the American Board of Family Medicine, Dr. Bowman led the transformation of the Journal from JABFP into JABFM . In July 2023, the Journal expanded its role in training the next generation of medical editors for the specialty with the launch of the ABFM Research and Editing Fellowship. JABFM now also sends its table of content to all family medicine residents. Most recently, Dr. Bowman steered the Journal’s full transition to online publishing, accelerating the speed of evidence delivery to family physicians.

Dr. Bowman is quick to point out the work of the strong editorial team that she grew over the years as a key ingredient in the journal’s success. That includes Dr. Victoria Neale who served as Deputy Editor for years and Phil Lupo who has been Managing Editor for nearly 20 years. The specialty has been exceptionally lucky to have had Dr. Bowman leading one of its key research journals for almost a quarter of a century. As she takes on this new role of Editor Emerita, we pause to recognize and thank her for her vision, wisdom, and dedication to the science of family medicine.