A physician and educator whose work spans continents while also powerfully impacting her home state is now a member of West Virginia Executive magazine’s Health Care Hall of Fame.
Katherine Calloway, D.O., a West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM) regional assistant dean and an alumna of the school, was inducted with nine other health care professionals during a March 3 awards program in Charleston, W.Va.
WVSOM’s regional assistant deans oversee the progress of students in their third and fourth years of medical school as they complete rotations in the school’s Statewide Campus system, which consists of seven regions across West Virginia. Calloway works in the system’s South East Region, which encompasses Greenbrier, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Summers and Webster counties as well as portions of Fayette and Wyoming counties.
In addition to her role with WVSOM, Calloway is chief medical director for the state’s largest hospice organization, HospiceCare WV, which provides palliative and supportive care services to patients and families in 16 counties.
She said she is honored to become a member of the hall.
“Selection to the Health Care Hall of Fame is a humbling recognition of the extraordinary network of West Virginians across disciplines who advance care, innovation and service every day,” Calloway said. “This honor also reflects the strength and distinctiveness of the osteopathic profession in our state and the steadfast dedication of the HospiceCare WV team. It is a privilege to represent colleagues, students, patients and partners whose compassion and collaboration define health care in West Virginia.”
Calloway also serves as an advisor to the American Osteopathic Association’s Bureau for International Medicine, which advocates globally for the osteopathic profession, and is president of the board of directors of the West Virginia Rural Health Association.
Before earning her D.O. degree, Calloway graduated from Wake Forest University with a double major in sports medicine and medical anthropology, then completed a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University. That degree led to global health work with organizations such as the United Nations, the International Rescue Committee and the Clinton Foundation. A series of international experiences carried her from Cambodian border camps in Thailand to post-conflict Kosovo and to the East African nations of Mozambique and Rwanda, among many other locations.
After moving back to her home state of West Virginia, she worked as a family practice physician with Charleston Internal Medicine, then helped develop a nonpharmacologic pain management program as part of Cabin Creek Health Systems’ medication-assisted treatment program for people in recovery from substance use.
She said her path has always focused on serving where help is needed most.
“My career has never been linear; it’s been mission-driven,” Calloway said. “I began in global public health and later returned to West Virginia, where I expanded into clinical practice, hospice leadership, medical education and rural health policy. Each chapter built on the last: Global systems work taught me how to build programs; family medicine taught me how to build relationships; hospice taught me how to hold space for families; and academic leadership taught me how to build future physicians.”
She joined her medical school alma mater as a regional assistant dean in the South Central Region of the Statewide Campus in 2022, based in Charleston. Calloway, who transitioned to the South East Regionin early 2026, said a large part of her position with WVSOM centers on mentoring future physicians.
“A core part of that mentorship is helping students discover what it means to practice medicine through the osteopathic lens — to treat the whole person, to lead with compassion and to see patients as partners in their own healing. Guiding students through clinical challenges, career decisions and personal growth reminds me that leadership is not about what we build for ourselves but what we cultivate in others,” she said.
Calloway enjoys seeing opportunities for service unfold in ways that create unexpected connections. In late 2024, one of those connections led to her bring a close advisor of one of the world’s most revered spiritual leaders to West Virginia and WVSOM.
“A medical service trip with students in Northeast India opened a chain of doors that led to meeting the Dalai Lama, hosting his advisor, the Oracle Nechung Kuten-la, welcoming him to speak at WVSOM and witnessing him offering a blessing over West Virginia on the Capitol steps in Charleston,” Calloway said. “Experiences like these remind me how deeply interconnected we all are and how service has a way of widening the circle far beyond what we imagine.”
The West Virginia Executive Health Care Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who go above and beyond in the health care industry and its supporting industries. Nominees must have been in their current position and lived in West Virginia for at least two years; made a significant contribution to health care in the state; and have a passion for making the Mountain State a better, healthier, happier place to live.
At least one WVSOM alumni, administrator or faculty member has been recognized in the Health Care Hall of Fame each year the magazine has honored health care professionals.