Lennon Robert P

Dr. Lennon is a native of Detroit, Michigan. Growing up in a military family, he lived in several states and overseas. He studied chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and helped develop the first stable divalent silicon molecule with Dr. Michael Denk. He completed a law degree at Wisconsin, and then split time between corporate America and academia. He was commissioned as an Ensign in 2005 when he started medical school at the Uniformed Services University. He completed a Family Medicine Residency at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida. During that time, he developed a novel system of improving resident research which led to a 7-fold increase in resident research. On behalf of the Navy he applied for and was approved by the ACGME to allow each Navy Family Medicine Residency one four-year slot as part of the 4-year Family Medicine Residency Pilot. After residency he was assigned to Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan. There he earned the Executive Medicine Additional Qualification Designation after serving in numerous roles at that command, including Department Head, Senior Medical Officer for Branch Clinics, Patient Centered Medical Home Champion, and Chair, Medical Ethics Committee. He continued to pursue academic medicine, receiving an appointment as Assistant Professor from the Uniformed Services University and international recognition for his research in medical education. He completed his military service at Naval Hospital Jacksonville as a faculty member in the Family Medicine Residency, where he served as the Quality Physician Management Advisor, on the Healthcare Ethics Committee, the Osteoarthritis Value Based Care Initiative Committee, and as the USUHS Medical Site Coordinator. During this time, he also served as the Medical Officer in Charge of Operation Continuing Promise – 2017, a multinational medical humanitarian assistance mission to Central and South America. He also led a team of U.S. Navy physicians on a joint medical mission with Brazil, providing care to from a Brazilian hospital ship to the riverine population of the Madeira River in the Brazilian Amazon. Dr. Lennon joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Penn State College of Medicine as an Associate Professor to pursue clinical research. Current projects include: osteopathic manipulative therapy for the treatment of chronic migraine, moral injury as a mechanism of physician distress, folate derivatives as topically applied reducing agents to inhibit carcinogenesis, multimedia education modules to increase resident scholarly activity, and mindfulness as a strategy to assist with management of pain (the STAMP study.) Dr. Lennon continues to maintain an active role in Global Health and has established a relationship between Penn State College of Medicine and the University of São Paulo to facilitate bidirectional education exchange and collaborative research with the ultimate goal of building a One Health exploration of Brazilian Amazon Riverine populations.