For Dr. Jane Kirkpatrick, medicine has never been just a profession. It is a calling: one she describes as both a responsibility and a privilege. To care for another human life, she believes, is sacred work. Now, after decades of serving patients in a small community and around the world, she is channeling that same sense of purpose into shaping the next generation of physicians.
As associate dean of student affairs and director of admissions on the Savannah campus of Mercer University School of Medicine, Dr. Kirkpatrick stands at a pivotal point in students’ journeys. She helps select future physicians, welcomes them at orientation and walks alongside them through each year of medical school. It is a role that perfectly blends her love of medicine, mentorship and service.
Her path to this leadership position was shaped early by family, faith and a deep desire to serve. Growing up in a family of educators, with a father who farmed and neighbors who shared what they had, Dr. Kirkpatrick learned the value of hard work and community. Her family also participated in mission trips, modeling a life devoted to helping others. Combined with her love of science in high school and the influence of a family friend who practiced internal medicine, she knew early on that becoming a physician was her calling.
She attended the Medical College of Georgia, where she met her husband, now an anesthesiologist, and completed her residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. The couple eventually settled in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, where Dr. Kirkpatrick practiced internal medicine for 25 years.
Those years in Rutherfordton shaped her in profound ways.
“My patients became like family to me,” she has shared.
The small-town community reminded her of her own upbringing, where relationships mattered and care extended beyond clinic walls. Patients would bring vegetables and homemade jams, simple gestures that reflected deep trust and connection. For Dr. Kirkpatrick, this was medicine at its best: personal, relational and rooted in community.
While building her practice, she also fulfilled a long-held dream of medical mission work. Her first trip, serving as medical team leader in Suriname, South America, was transformative. Traveling by dugout canoe to a remote village with little to no access to care opened her eyes to profound global health needs. What began as one trip became a lifelong commitment. She went on to serve as a board member with Helps Ministries in Asheville, North Carolina, and completed 25 trips to Zhytomyr, Ukraine, providing primary care. She also led teams in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, India, and served as an interim teaching attending physician at Tenwek Teaching Hospital in Kenya. Each experience deepened her understanding of service, leadership and the universal need for compassionate care.
In 2017, Dr. Kirkpatrick and her family relocated to Savannah, where she became a medical campus outreach leader. Her connection to Mercer University School of Medicine grew stronger in 2022 when she stepped into her current role as associate dean of student affairs and director of admissions. The move felt like a natural extension of her life’s work. Mercer’s mission to improve access to health care in underserved rural areas of Georgia closely mirrors her own heart for service.
Now, instead of leading medical teams across oceans, she leads students through the demanding and transformative years of medical school. She hopes they leave not only with a strong clinical education but with a deep understanding of the responsibility they carry.
“Mercer provides a phenomenal medical education,” she said. “But I want students to truly understand the complexity of this work, to learn how to listen well and to become excellent communicators.”
For Dr. Kirkpatrick, communication is at the heart of good medicine. Physicians must collaborate with one another but never at the expense of the patient’s voice, she said. Patients should never feel overlooked or talked over. Primary care plays a vital role in coordinating that communication and advocating for the patient at every step.
After decades of direct patient care and global mission work, she now finds joy in mentoring students — getting to know them personally, listening to their concerns and encouraging them as they navigate each stage of their education. From orientation through Match Day, she takes pride in being part of their journey into residency and beyond. She is quick to note that she is supported by a dedicated team equally committed to students and to Mercer’s mission.
“Mercer is a wonderful place to work,” she said. “It truly feels like a family. When everyone is united behind the mission, the work feels purposeful and meaningful.”
