Apr 14 – Apr 20
WVSOM campus
Each year during the second week of April, NOM Week commemorates the 1897 founding of the American Osteopathic Association, originally known as the American Association for the Advancement of Osteopathy, in Kirksville, Missouri.
All lectures will be held in the Student Center Conference Center, Dr. Foster's Friday Lecture open to the community. Please join us in celebrating osteopathic medicine. Meals will be provided for the first 100 attendees
Teodor Huzij, D.O.
Teodor Huzij, D.O., is a graduate of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. After training in a combined U.S. Air Force residency in family medicine and psychiatry, he completed a neuromusculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine residency at the University of New England. Huzij founded Trinity Institute, a Christian osteopathic psychiatry practice, and continues to serve as a psychiatrist and medical director. He has had faculty positions in osteopathic medical education from 2009 to the present, including at the University of New England, Michigan State University, Lincoln Memorial University and Rocky Vista University. He has been an associate professor of osteopathic principles and practice at the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine since 2024.
Huzij is a fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Neurologists and Psychiatrists and a current board member. He is a recent past examining board member of the American Osteopathic Board of Neurology and Psychiatry. His clinical and research interests lie at the intersection of mental health and manual medicine as well as faith in medicine.
Edward Stiles, D.O.
Edward Stiles, D.O., graduated from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1965. He practiced general medicine throughout the Northeast and Midwest through the 1990s while achieving numerous distinctions. He continues to teach at the University of Pikeville and travels the country teaching small-group seminars on various OMT approaches such as muscle energy technique (MET), functional/Laughlin-Still, cranial-sacral, strain-counterstrain, and high-velocity, low-amplitude.
In 1970, Stiles was among only six D.O.s selected to participate in an MET tutorial conducted by Fred Mitchell, D.O. In 1973, Stiles established the first hospital-based osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) service in the country at Waterville Osteopathic Hospital. He later served as the hospital director until 1978. He developed the first five-level OMT coding system in conjunction with Medicare, which is used in the current CPT coding system.
Stiles’ career is distinguished by countless educational and advisory positions and the impact those positions have had on the practice of OMT today.
Ali Carine, D.O.
Ali Carine, D.O., is an osteopathic pediatrician in Columbus, Ohio. She provides comprehensive, integrative primary care for children. Her practice provides a medical home to children of all backgrounds, including those with special needs, such as autism.
Carine’s passion lies in the power integrative osteopathic care has in the prevention of many illnesses that plague American children. She is advocating for change in the structure of pediatric primary care that will lead to better health in the population as a whole. She enjoys teaching students and other physicians through speaking, precepting, mentoring and writing.
Robert “Bob” Foster, D.O.
A keeper of the institutional memory at WVSOM (some might say he’s an institution within himself), Robert “Bob” Foster, D.O., retired as the school’s associate dean of osteopathic medical education in 2023 after 45 years of service. His relationship with WVSOM began in 1978 when he became an associate professor. “A friend called me from here and said they’re starting this new school to train rural physicians,” he said. “My ears perked up because that was where the great need was. The appeal was the mission of the school.”
Foster has authored and co-authored many papers and given many presentations focused on the learning and delivery of osteopathic medicine. He played a key role in the grow shadow mb-3th of osteopathic medicine in the Mountain State with his commitment to teaching, advising and mentoring osteopathic physicians in rural communities in West Virginia and across the U.S. “When I came here, there were around 60 D.O.s in the whole state,” he said. With hundreds of D.O.s now in practice in West Virginia, the school’s presence has had a significant impact. “Most of them are WVSOM graduates, or they’ve set the tone for other D.O.s to come here.”