Irfan Asif, M.D.
, associate dean for Primary Care and Rural Health in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award. The award, given by UAB’s Office of the Provost, is named in honor of the civic leader and UAB champion. It recognizes UAB faculty who have rendered outstanding service in the Birmingham community.
Nominators emphasize Asif’s dedication to expanding access to primary care across Alabama, particularly in rural and underserved communities, and his efforts on behalf of athletes and non-athletes with disabilities. In addition to his other roles, Asif is co-director of UAB’s Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center and is the Heersink Endowed Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine. He also directs the UAB Health System Primary Care Service Line, a $35 million enterprise that represents some 20 percent of the institution’s ambulatory clinical footprint.
Primary Care recorded nearly 145,000 patient visits in fiscal year 2025. “At the same time, we have dramatically reduced and, in some instances, essentially eliminated appointment wait times with same-day/next-day appointments for current patients and by expanding walk-in clinics and telehealth options,” Asif explained in a UAB Medicine Magazine story.
Asif has secured more than $40 million in federal and philanthropic funding to expand UAB’s Comprehensive Urban Underserved and Rural Experience, or CU2RE, program and other strategic workforce initiatives, further strengthening the institution’s capacity to deliver community-centered care.
“Under his direction, UAB has developed a robust statewide family medicine infrastructure that now includes more than 100 residents and fellows training across urban underserved, rural, academic and frontier settings,” said Anupam Agarwal, M.D., senior vice president and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine. “Importantly, 73 percent of these trainees go on to practice in underserved communities, with more than half remaining in Alabama.”
“A large part of the CU2RE funding goes to help offset medical student debt burden so that it is more financially practical for students to choose family medicine,” Asif noted. Some $1.9 million was used to offset student debt this year alone, he says.
Overcoming barriers to care
“Dr. Asif is widely respected as a teacher, leader and community partner whose work reflects both excellence and humility,” wrote Robert Rex Record, M.D., CEO of Christ Health Center, who praised Asif’s “dedication to vulnerable populations, his investment in the next generation of clinicians and his commitment to meaningful community collaboration.”
Record also noted Asif’s role in building innovative workforce development programs and community-engaged care models that have “helped create sustainable pipelines of physicians committed to serving those most in need.”
“Dr. Asif has been an exceptional partner in helping design and implement a practical model that connects patients from clinical settings directly into community-based physical activity programs,” said Dan Pile, immediate past CEO of YMCA of Birmingham. “This work is especially important for individuals managing chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity, and for underserved populations who often face barriers to accessible preventive health resources.”
Advancing innovative models
“In a state facing significant health disparities, high chronic disease burden and limited rural access to care, he has advanced innovative models that integrate preventive services, chronic disease management and wellness initiatives directly into community settings,” Agarwal said.
“A particularly impactful extension of this work,” Agarwal continued, “is Dr. Asif’s leadership in Live HealthSmart Alabama, a flagship initiative focused on improving health outcomes across Birmingham. Through LHSA, he has helped deploy and support a mobile wellness unit delivering screenings, preventive services and health education directly into neighborhoods — effectively meeting individuals where they are.”
“Students in our Family and Community Medicine-led co-enrolled elective have contributed nearly 600 service hours to the Live HealthSmart Alabama Mobile Wellness Van, and our residents from both programs rotate with the Wellness Van,” Asif said.
Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, senior associate dean for Access and Engagement in the Heersink School of Medicine and director of the Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center, highlighted Asif’s “work to improve community medical care by ensuring that current and future clinicians are attuned to the realities of the patients they serve.”
In coordination with the LHSA’s Mobile Wellness initiative, Asif “has created an innovative educational experience for medical students and residents,” Fouad said. “Unlike a traditional clinic rotation, students and residents participating in this initiative step outside the walls of the clinic to spend time with patients where they live, work and gather — whether it be in church parking lots, schools, neighborhood events or somewhere else in the community. The students and residents see the communities firsthand and develop a richer appreciation of the social and structural factors influencing chronic disease. They learn how to incorporate local resources into care to help meet challenges unique to each patient and community.”
Dedication to health, performance and dignity
Asif has been a transformative partner to Birmingham’s Lakeshore Foundation, an internationally renowned organization for individuals living with disabilities that also serves as an Olympic and Paralympic training site, says Lakeshore president and CEO John Kemp.
“Dr. Asif serves as head team physician for USA Wheelchair Rugby, a role in which he has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to the health, performance and dignity of elite adaptive athletes,” Kemp wrote. “Through our longstanding partnership, Dr. Asif has provided on-site pre-camp physicals for national team athletes, coordinated critical diagnostic follow-up care, and ensured seamless continuity of medical services both in Birmingham and in athletes’ home communities.”
For many athletes with complex disabilities, Kemp added, “this level of informed, compassionate and accessible care is rare; for them, Dr. Asif has been nothing short of a game changer.”
Asif also is a “highly respected voice within the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee medical community,” Kemp said. “He regularly presents on Lakeshore’s work and our shared innovations in adaptive sport and disability-inclusive care,” Kemp said, “earning the respect of senior medical leadership and helping elevate Birmingham as a model for integrated sport, health and community service.”
Asif spearheaded the development of the first training video and materials on how to administer CPR to athletes in wheelchairs. The video, produced at Lakeshore, was used to train medical staff at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. In addition, Asif delivered the opening keynote address at the 2024 International Olympic Committee World Conference on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport.
Asif’s commitment reaches beyond athletes, Kemp said: “He consistently assists Lakeshore when non-athlete individuals with disabilities struggle to access appropriate primary or family medicine care. For many of these patients, Dr. Asif has provided their first experience with a physician who truly understands disability — not as a limitation, but as a context requiring expertise, respect and partnership. The impact on patient trust, outcomes and quality of life cannot be overstated.”
Connecting excellence and impact
“What truly distinguishes Dr. Asif is his ability to connect institutional excellence with meaningful community impact,” Agarwal said. Asif received the 2024 North American Primary Care Research Group President’s Award, and he was selected as one of only six individuals nationally for the highly competitive 2026-2027 Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Deans Fellowship Program. This was a recognition of Asif’s “potential to shape the future of academic medicine,” Agarwal said.
Asif’s service to community includes a partnership with Birmingham City Schools that includes performing participation physicals for 1,500 BCS athletes and sideline coverage for a variety of sports at seven high schools and 12 middle schools in Birmingham.
Asif’s “leadership is collaborative and inclusive, and he is widely respected for his integrity, humility and genuine dedication to improving lives,” Agarwal said. “As a first-generation college graduate, his personal journey informs a deep commitment to expanding opportunity, promoting equity and uplifting underserved populations.”