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polished young man who was able to
converse and appreciate a wide range of
subjects and things.”
He also was ready to see an
opportunity. As an ER doctor at
Birmingham’s Brookwood Hospital, he
noticed that patients who didn’t truly
need that level of care were filling up the
waiting room.
“We even had a name for them—
GOMERs, which stands for ‘Get Out of
My Emergency Room,’” Irwin said. “But
they had nowhere else to go. These
patients clogged up the system and
created long waits, frustration, and higher
health care costs for everyone.”
Despite his lack of experience in
business, he sketched out a plan for
a network of urgent care clinics on a
notepad. The facilities would be designed,
equipped, and staffed much like hospital
emergency rooms, but they would be
located in neighborhoods near where
patients lived and be designed to provide
care for a fraction of the cost of the ER.
“Urgent care is really a misnomer,”
said Irwin. “What we really provide is
accessible primary care: a mix of urgent
care, family care, and occupational
health services.”
Each facility is fully equipped with
the most advanced imaging and
diagnostic equipment and offers the
latest techniques and treatments by its
physicians, with a patient wait time of
30 minutes or less. From that idea, he
turned American Family Care into what’s
now the world’s leading provider of
urgent and family care.
A plan for tomorrow
With a reputation as an innovator,
Irwin is working on some new ideas to
expand his reach and further improve the
medical care that people receive.
A lack of accessible health care is a
world-wide problem, said Irwin. He
is currently in negotiations to take
AFC international, most likely starting
in China. On the domestic front,
he is focusing on chronic disease
management—something that will help
members of the Baby Boom generation
as they age.
“Almost half of Baby Boomers have
a chronic health care problem which,
in most cases, is poorly managed,”
Irwin said. “We are in the process of
developing systems to make access
to chronic disease health care and
management as easy to obtain as we
made day-to-day urgent care and primary
care. This will lead to better outcomes,
lower health care costs, and longer lives.”
Even in his role as leader of a fast-
growing company, Irwin has stayed at
the forefront of medicine. In addition
to his previous Fellowship in Primary
Care Development at Michigan State
University and board certification
from the American Board of Family
Practice, he has held board seats and/
or memberships in organizations such
as the American Academy of Family
Physicians, the National Association
for Ambulatory Care, and the American
Board of Family Practice.
With the extraordinary success of
AFC, he has evolved into a leading
philanthropist for health-related issues.
He has held volunteer leadership roles
and provided significant financial
support to causes such as the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation, American Heart
Association, and Arthritis Foundation,
and currently serves as co-chair of
the Alabama Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society’s “Light the Night Walk.”
In his down time, Irwin is an avid
big-game fisherman and enjoys piloting
planes and aviation-related activities;
he also collects watches and vintage
European sports cars. He describes
himself as an extreme optimist, who finds
something useful in any situation, even if
it didn’t turn out the way he hoped.
“Perhaps the thing most people do
not know or understand about me is I
never ‘try’ to do anything,” said Irwin. “I
do not use that word in my vocabulary,
nor do I allow anyone to use it in my
presence. You either do something or
you don’t. That’s all there is to it.”
College boosting young alumni engagement
The Office of Alumni Affairs has restructured its Young Alumni Council to better
engage and serve Birmingham-Southern’s most recent graduates with events and
communications tailored to their needs and perspectives.
The council’s primary mission is to assist the college in developing meaningful
programs and support services for current and future young alums and to help increase
young alumni giving, which is critical to the success of BSC.
Birmingham-Southern alumni who have graduated within the past 10 years are
eligible for membership. Members will be nominated, recruited, and selected based
on their abilities, commitment to BSC, and potential for advancing the council; the
Alumni Office seeks members who are passionate about working to enhance the post-
graduate experience for young alums, regardless of their involvement as students or
their current engagement with the college. Alumni may nominate themselves or other
young alums.
If you are interested in joining the council or submitting a nomination, please
contact Christie Wenke Janey ’09 in the Office of Alumni Affairs at .
Future appointments to the council will be made each August.
2016-17 members:
Samantha Davis ’08
Jeanie Sleadd ’09 (President)
Whitney Williams ’09
William Moore ’09
Keith Gray ‘10
Kathleen Hillen ‘10
Claire Hubbs ’11
Tiffany Dy Moore ’11
Jennifer Commander ‘12
“CeCe” (Clementine Corbin) Lacey ’12
Nino Yu Tiamco ‘13
Kayla Absher ’14 (Secretary)
Mary Kathryn Waters ’15
Jackson “Paden” Gaines ’16