Founder and Medical Director, 1970-2019

Dr. Walter Afield passed away October 12, 2019. He was practicing medicine up until the time of death. The son of Irish and German immigrants, he lived the American dream. He was born and raised in New York City. He moved to St. Petersburg during his teenage years and graduated from St. Petersburg High School in 1953.

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Dr. Afield received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his Medical Degree from Johns Hopkins University, and did a year of Internal Medicine at Emory University's Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He did four years of residency in neuropsychiatry at a variety of Harvard hospitals - The Boston Psychopathic Hospital, The Boston Children's Hospital, and The Massachusetts General Hospital. He consulted on substance abuse at Boston's Washingtonian Hospital and the Division of Legal Medicine in the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice. After teaching at Harvard, he returned to Johns Hopkins where he was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics. He directed the Child Psychiatry Programs in the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Clinics in Columbia, Maryland. He also consulted at the Seton Psychiatric Institute, The Good Shepherd Residential Treatment Center, Catholic Charities and the Central Headquarters of the Social Security Administration.

In 1970, Dr. Afield came to Tampa as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the new University of South Florida College of Medicine. He was the first clinical faculty member, and one of the original founders of the Medical School and the Nursing School. He created St. Joseph's Community Mental Health Center, Florida's first such center. He was Chief of Psychiatry at the new James Haley VA Hospital, much of which he designed. He was intimately involved with a variety of negotiations concerning affiliation agreements with Tampa General Hospital, All Children's Hospital and other teaching hospitals in the area. In 1974, he went into full-time practice. He was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both Adult Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry. He was certified by the American Psychiatric Association in Health Care Administration. For 20 years he was an examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both Adult and Child Psychiatry. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and American Academy of Child Psychiatry, among others. He was on the staff of St. Joseph's Hospital and Tampa General Hospital. He has consulted with Federal Law Enforcement agencies in the area of health care fraud. He has also testified in Federal and State Courts throughout the country. He has testified before the United States Congress on proper diagnosis and health care fraud and abuse. He was licensed to practice Medicine in Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts and California. He has been a Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University's Medical School in Nashville and at Brown University's Medical School in Providence. He serves on multiple community boards.

Walter Afield, MD