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When the message came across Lauren Brown’s phone shortly after noon on December 10, the café at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus suddenly filled with cheers, smiles, and celebratory shouts of joy.

It was in that moment that Brown, a member of the MD Class of 2026 at WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed), learned she was headed to her top choice for residency training – Emergency Medicine at Wright-Patterson Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio – with the U.S. Air Force as part of the Military Match.

“I’m excited and I’m just really happy,” said Brown, a Florida native and alumna of the University of Central Florida where she earned her bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences in 2021. “It’s been a really stressful couple of months waiting for the news so there’s a lot of relief and a lot of joy.”

As she prepares for the next steps in residency training, Brown said she will get the chance to be a part of what, for her family, is “a long history of military service in the Air Force.”

Brown is the recipient of a scholarship from the F. Edward Hébert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) and currently holds the rank of second lieutenant in the Air Force. She will be promoted to captain following graduation in May. The HPSP scholarship covers medical school tuition and fees, and provides a monthly living stipend.

“When I came across the scholarship program, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to fulfill my dream of becoming a physician while serving my country,” she said. “The scholarship has already given me lots of opportunity to travel and care for our active-duty members, their families, and retirees.”

The Military Match is held annually in December, a full three months before the traditional Match Day for other fourth-year medical students, and Brown is the 14th student from WMed to match into a residency program as part of the Military Match.

Now that she knows where she will complete her three-year residency in Emergency Medicine, Brown said she plans to relax a bit and provide support for her classmates who will learn where they’re headed for residency training at Match Day on March 20, 2026.

Brown said she was thrilled to get her top choice for residency training in the Military Match. She said the program at Wright-Patterson Medical Center is filled with great people and she’s looking forward to working with her fellow residents, as well as the attending physicians and hospital staff who were all “so nice and friendly and welcoming.”

“I also just love the hospital systems and I feel like it will be a great learning experience there because you see so many different patients and get tons of clinical experience,” Brown said. “I’m really looking forward to being able to fully jump in and immerse myself in emergency medicine.”

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