Dr. Stephens is the author of numerous articles and book chapters in the area of infectious diseases. During his career, he has received the J. Willis Hurst Award for teaching from the Georgia Chapter of the American College of Physicians and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award for humanistic, compassionate care from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.A native of Morrow, he earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Georgia State University and his M.D. as part of MUSM’s second graduating class. As a medical student, he was elected to Mercer’s inaugural class of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society.Dr. Stephens trained in internal medicine at Emory University and completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at Wake Forest University in 1992. He then returned to Macon as a member of the MUSM faculty and advanced to professor of medicine in 2003.Additionally, Dr. Stephens has served as chief of medicine for Medical Center, Navicent Health, clerkship director for internal medicine and assistant program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program.